The End Is The Beginning
by moviebuff001
Summary: A series of similar, strange murders brings the FBI, Shaolin Priests, FX people and vampires to New York


Title- The End Is The Beginning  
Author-Carla  
E-mail-Moviebuff001@yahoo.com  
Homepage- www.angelfire.com/vt/chrispotter  
Key words-Forever Knight/X-files/Kung fu: The Legend Continues/FX: The Series  
Crossover  
  
The X-files is set sometime in the seventh season, Forever Knight is after Last   
Night(which never happened in my universe), Kung Fu is set sometime in the last   
season, and FX is a few days after Red Storm.  
Spoilers: Nothing really specific except for Red Storm in FX: The Series.  
Summary: A series of similar, strange murders brings the FBI, Shaolin Priests, FX  
people and vampires to New York.  
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine; The X-files belongs to Chris Carter, 1013  
Productions and Fox; Forever Knight belongs to James Perriot and Sony/Tristar; FX:  
The Series belongs to Rysher Entertainment; Kung Fu: The Legend Continues belongs  
to Warner Brothers. I am not making any money from this and it is only entertainment for  
me (because I don't think anyone will read this). No copyright infringement is intended.  
_______________________________  
  
  
New York City, Apartment Building  
February 7, 11:36 PM  
  
She was enjoying her drink slowly, she preferred to feed in the comfort of her  
home, not only did it give her time to enjoy her catch but it also gave her the privacy she  
needed to be kept secret. Her latest...drink, had been young, only twenty-three, a  
handsome, vibrant man she was sure would be missed but she couldn't help herself.  
She'd first seen him at a bar, after promising him a night he'd never forget, he had come  
to her apartment more than willingly. He had been completely oblivious to what purpose  
she wanted him for and incredibly scared, when he learned.  
  
She was sitting in a chair, looking out at the night sky, her back to the door, she  
never heard or felt the intruder approaching her. He stared at her for only a few  
moments before quickly spinning the chair around to face him and plunging a wooden  
stake into the woman's heart.  
______________________________  
  
New York City, Rollie Tyler's Loft  
February 7, 11:53 PM  
  
Rollie Tyler, sat staring at his computer, as he had been for hours. He knew that  
he had a lot of work to do before his company, Tyler FX, started work on a new movie  
but he couldn't seem to get his mind away from the only other person in Tyler FX, Angie  
Ramirez. It was hard to believe that four days ago, he'd only seen her only as an assistant, a  
friend, more like a sister than anything else. Now the thoughts he had in his mind were  
anything but brotherly. When had she gone from 'Manny's little girl' to this beautiful  
woman, he couldn't stop thinking about?  
  
He shook his head for the millionth time that night, 'get over her Tyler, she  
doesn't feel the same way.' As much as he tried to just forget about her, he couldn't help  
staring at her, as he was doing again now. She was at her work station, concentrating  
on something, which Rollie assumed had something to with the movie they were getting  
ready for.  
  
Nothing could be farther from the truth, Angie was thinking about Rollie once  
more. She never had stopped thinking about him, ever since Loubar had raped her.  
Actually, she always thought about him, even before that but it had never interfered with  
her work before. Every time she tried to work out some problem on the computer, she  
would think of his face, his smile, those eyes...she was doing it again.   
  
She closed her eyes and rubbed them, beneath her, Rollie noticed and saw how  
tried she was. It was hard to talk to her, even a 'Hello' was tough but he cared about her  
enough to finally go up to her workstation.  
  
"You look tired, why don't you go home?" Rollie told her, even though Mira had  
told him that Angie was now staying at a hotel instead of home. He, himself wouldn't  
sleep in the bed that Victor Loubar had raped Angie in with Rollie's face.  
  
Angie had been surprised by the sound of Rollie's voice behind her but the  
kindness in it surprised her even more. She second-guessed herself and figured her  
being here just made him uncomfortable. She turned off her work and turned to leave  
without saying a word to him.  
  
Rollie was about to reach out for her arm when he pulled back, he wasn't ready  
to look her in the eye yet. He watched painfully as she walked toward the door without  
looking at him, whispering a "Good-bye", before she closed the door to the loft. Rollie  
sat down on the stairs and put his head in his hands.  
  
Outside Angie leaned heavily on the door she had just closed, closed on Rollie,  
her best friend. Her best friend she couldn't even look in the eye or mutter a word to.  
She wasn't afraid of him, she just couldn't look at him or hear the disappointment in his  
voice, she was sure she would hear and see. She had slept with someone she thought  
had been Rollie, she had wanted to sleep with Rollie. She wanted...she needed him and  
right now she thought she would never be able to be as close as they once were, again.  
  
She slammed her head against the door and cursed the day Loubar was born.  
_______________________________  
Toronto, Canada, Metro police department  
February 8, 12:16 AM  
  
Homicide detective Nick Knight had finished all his paper work and was now busy  
trying to stand a pen upright, his partner, Tracey Vetter, sat across from him, staring into  
space. It had been a slow night, in fact it had been a slow month, which was good, the  
less murders in the world was good, but it sure made for a boring job.  
  
"I'm going to go down to the morgue and see if I can't find something to do." Nick  
told Tracey after several failed attempts with the pen.  
  
"Nick, you've already been down there twice tonight, people might get  
suspicious." Tracey teased, even though neither Nick nor the coroner Dr. Natalie  
Lambert would admit it, everyone knew there was something going on between those  
two. She smiled at the thought, for some reason they reminded her of her relationship  
with Vachon. Maybe she would go pay him a visit. "I have something to follow up, I'll see  
you later." Tracey said as she stood up and grabbed her coat.  
  
"You sure you don't need some help?" Nick asked hopefully. He never got like  
this but after a month of practically no cases, it left him with a lot of time to think, he  
didn't want to think.  
  
"Nope, I'll be fine. Say hi to Nat for me." Tracey grinned and left.  
  
Nick contemplated following her if not for her protection, for something to do. But  
he finally decided to go visit Natalie, he had a reason of course, he just had to figure it  
out.  
______________________________  
Alexandria, VA, Fox Mulder's Apartment  
12:23 AM  
  
Fox Mulder lay on his couch, flipping through the channels on his television for  
the billionth time. Flashes of light and sound never reached his thoughts, he could only  
think of the case he and his partner had been working on, which ended in the death of  
an eight-year old boy. A innocent child, killed by someone for no reason, who's last  
moments were spent looking into the eyes of his partner, Dana Scully.  
  
Scully. It broke his heart to see her sit there cradling the little boy, knowing these  
were his last moments on earth. Mulder had comforted her best he could but she had  
wanted to be alone.  
  
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at his door, he glanced at his watch and  
wondered over to the door. Looking through the peep hole, he saw Scully. He curbed his  
happiness when he saw the look on her face, she looked worse then she had when he  
had dropped her off an hour earlier. He opened the door and almost grabbed Scully into  
a tight embrace, then thought better of it.  
  
"I couldn't sleep." Scully told him, truthfully she hadn't tried very hard to fall  
asleep, she just couldn't stand being alone. She always felt alone when she was without  
Mulder. Trying to keep a professional distance from him was the only thing preventing  
her from throwing herself into his arms.  
  
He led her over to the couch and sat down beside her, their knees gently  
touching. Mulder had another desire to hold her, to protect her from anything that hurt  
her but he settled for taking her hand in his. Without saying anything, Scully wrapped  
her arms around Mulder and they held each other, for the rest of the night.  
________________________  
Kwai Chang Caine's Apartment  
9:41 AM  
  
Caine was quietly packing what little he was taking with him on his trip, when his  
son, Peter, came in. Recognizing the look on his father's face Peter, immediately grew  
angry.  
  
"You're leaving again, aren't you?" Peter received only a shrug from his father.  
"Planning on telling me, or were you just going to leave and maybe show back up six  
months, a year, later?" One of the many things Peter could never understand about his  
father was how he could just leave without saying good-bye but it was always for a good  
reason. He tried another tact. "So where are WE going?"  
  
"No, this is much to dangerous for you, I am travelling alone." Caine replied with a  
stern, but kind voice.   
  
"Sorry, you go, I go, I have some vacation time coming up, so I'm coming with  
you." Peter stated, to his own surprise, with a calm voice.  
  
Caine gave him the age old look of 'Why do you have to be so stubborn' to which  
Peter replied with the 'I only learn from the best' look.  
  
"New York City, someone needs me there." Caine said as he started for the door,  
Peter following close behind.  
  
"Alright." Peter had given up many years ago on getting a 'simple' explanation  
from his father. Lifting an arm around his father's shoulder, he said. "Let's go."  
__________________________________  
Toronto, Canada, Nick Knight's Apartment   
11:54 AM  
  
"Nick?" Dr. Natalie Lambert asked as she let herself into the dark apartment,  
letting the door close behind her, she called out again while she walked up the stairs to  
his bedroom. No answer, she knew he would be asleep, what else would a vampire do  
in the daytime?  
  
Nick was lying in his bed, asleep, not wanting to upset him she called out quietly.  
She sat next to him on the bed and brushed the back of her hand across his cheek. How  
long had they been friends? How long had she wanted to wake up next to him? The  
weight of her latest thought had her jumping up, quickly leaning towards his ear and  
yelling as loud as she could, "NICK!"  
  
Nick jolted up to a sitting position and after a few moments of confusion, his eyes  
finally rested on the Nat.   
  
"Good-morning to you too." His voice dripped with sarcasm but his eyes danced  
with joy to see her. He looked over at the clock and winced. "This better be good."  
  
"It is, get dressed and meet me downstairs." Natalie called behind as she left the  
room.  
  
Nick slowly came down the stairs to where Natalie was sitting looking at a file  
folder. One look at her face, told him it was serious, he sat down close to her.  
  
"Do you remember, Florencia Montero?" Nat asked.  
  
"She was that vampire, who killed a few too many mortals for the community to  
be comfortable with. I think LaCoix tried to kill her but she fled before he got a chance.  
Why?"  
  
"That her?" Nat threw a photograph onto his lap of a young woman sitting in a  
chair with a stake sticking out through her heart.  
  
"Ya, that's Florencia. Where'd you get this?"  
  
"A friend of mine from New York City sent it to me. Nick she says this is the fourth  
murder like this. Also accompanying the body are others with massive blood loss and  
two puncture wounds in the neck. They're thinking the deceased was a murderer and  
somebody's killing them out of vengeance." Nat started to pace as Nick suddenly  
realised what she was talking about.  
  
"A vampire, fresh off a feed, get's killed. Vampire Slayer." Nick said as he laid his  
head on the back of the couch. "So you think some sort of "Buffy" is killing off  
vampires?"  
  
Nat threw an envelop at Nick, he opened to see a plane ticket to New York. He  
cringed, he hated planes, especially since his last partner, Donald Skanke and his  
captain, had been killed in one.  
  
"I talked to Captain Reese this morning he thinks it's a good idea if you AND  
Tracey, go to New York and help the police with this. And since I have some vacation  
time coming up, I thought I'd come with you."  
  
"Natalie, I would have liked for you to talk to me first and not involve Tracey in  
this. What am I supposed to do with her?" Now Nick was the one pacing. Natalie just  
gave him a snug look and headed to the door.  
  
"Don't miss the flight, see you in a few hours."  
____________________________________  
New York City, Rollie Tyler's Loft  
5:25 PM  
  
Detective Mira Sanchez knocked at the door to the loft, although it should have  
been just a friendly visit, she was here on business. She knew that the last few days had  
been extremely hard on Angie and Rollie and forgetting about Loubar would be the best  
thing for them, unfortunately that wasn't going to be the case.  
  
Rollie answered the door and once he saw Mira's face he knew, Loubar was  
back. Angie came down just in time to see Mira nod her head at the unspoken comment.  
  
"He's back, isn't he?" Angie asked, trying to keep calm, although she was shaking  
with fear.  
  
"One of our sources says that he went to France two days ago and came back  
today. Although that's still not a solid confirmation, it's enough for us to get worried.  
You've been assigned two police officers, they're standing outside now. Angie, I'll take  
you to your apartment and you can pack a bag. You're staying here." When she saw the  
two about to object she quickly added, "Don't argue with me, Loubar's going to be a  
bigger threat than ever now."  
  
A loud knock came from the door, Mira answered it herself. A uniformed cop  
stood on the doorway.  
  
"There's some guy here, says he knows you." The cop told her, as a man tried to  
fight his way through impatiently.  
  
"Well, if it isn't hot-shot cop Peter Caine." Mira said with a smile as Peter and his  
father came into view. She let them in.  
  
"Miss me?" Peter gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "The precinct said you  
were here, Mira Sanchez meet my father."   
  
"It is a pleasure to meet, you." He kissed her hand, then looked around at the  
others. "I am Caine." He told them.   
  
"That's Rollie Tyler and Angie Ramirez." Mira said turning back to Peter. "So, are  
you vacation or is this business?"  
  
"Can we talk, alone?" Peter asked. Mira led him away form the group.  
  
Caine reached out for Angie's hand, then Rollie's. He looked deep into their eyes.  
"You both have suffered very deeply but you have also lost that which is most  
precious to you, also. You must find strength in each other and express your true  
feelings for each other." Caine told them in a solemn voice, then took their hands and  
put them together.  
  
Peter and Mira came back towards them and Rollie and Angie dropped their  
hands, still not meeting each others eyes. Mira motioned for Angie to follow her and  
Peter and Caine left behind them. Leaving Rollie to ponder the priests words, alone.  
__________________________________  
New York City, Buxton Apartments  
8:30 PM  
  
The two federal agents flashed their badges and walked into a scene of absolute  
horror. On the wall, three feet above the ground a man was pinned to the wall, a steak  
sticking through his heart. Below, a few feet away, another body lay, that of a young  
woman. A dark haired woman was leaning over the body.  
  
"I'm agent Mulder and this agent Scully, we're with the FBI."  
  
"Yeah, we've been expecting you. I'm detective Mira Sanchez and this is Peter  
Caine." Mira told them, shaking hands. As much as she didn't like them coming to 'help'  
out with these murders, there had been too many and too frequent to be ignored.   
  
"So is this just like the other four double murders?" Scully asked crouching down  
to look at the neck of the victim laying on the ground. Two small puncture wounds.  
  
"We'll have to wait for forensics to come back for sure but that's what it looks  
like." Mira said.  
  
"Sorry, I'm from outta town so I'm a little lost, would you like to explain this to  
me?" Peter asked. Mulder answered.  
  
"There have been four murders like this one. One victim is killed with a stake  
through their heart, the other, extreme blood loss with the only exit wound of two  
puncture wounds in the neck. The two victims were not killed by the same person, or  
thing." Scully gave him a warning look. "The latter was killed by the one with the stake  
through the heart."  
  
"So, you're saying that this Mrs...." Peter looks in the deceased's wallet.  
"...McNally was killed by the that guy up on the wall, using a very...interesting method of  
killing."  
  
"The killer's a vigilante, thinking that he's a 'Vampire Slayer', killing off people who  
'think' they are vampires." No one had noticed the three people who had been listening  
in on their conversation. Nick Knight stuck out his hand. "At least that's my opinion, Nick  
Knight, Toronto PD."  
  
"You don't believe in vampires Mr.Kni...Natalie?!" Scully asked in surprise. Natalie  
looked back at her, reflecting the facial expression. Then they quickly gave each other a  
hug, while the others looked on, baffled.   
  
"Dana and I went to university together." Natalie explained. "So...have you got a  
lead?" Natalie looking around at everyone.  
  
"No fingerprints, blood or anything, whoever did this is a professional." Mira  
stated.  
  
"Does anyone think maybe this could be a hired killer, considering none of the  
victims had anything in common, besides their obvious taste for blood. Maybe someone  
hired this person to kill anyone who kills this way." Tracey piped up after staring at the  
body pinned to the wall.  
  
"Loubar." Mira whispered.  
  
"Who?" Peter asked.  
  
"Victor Loubar, he's an international terrorist, who my sources tell me, came back  
on..." Mira flips through her notebook. "The day before a these murders started  
happening."  
  
"Oh, everybody's favourite terrorist down at the bureau, absolutely nobody can  
catch him or find him. He's been here the whole time?" Mulder asked.  
  
"No, he was here to kill the Chinese Trade Minister and when he failed, he fled  
town for a few days, then I found out he came back to New York again." Mira thought  
that it might be good, that meant he was back to finish a job, not Rollie and Angie but he  
might do them both. "I have two friends that have been the only ones able to get in  
Loubar's way but they are also in extreme danger from him now."  
  
"Rollie Tyler?" Scully asked and Mira nodded her head. Scully had heard about  
him, knowing that they would put their lives at risk if they asked Rollie and his assistant  
to help find Loubar, she also knew they were the only ones to stop Loubar.  
  
"Why don't we go talk to them." Nick suggested.  
________________________________  
8:45 PM  
  
"There's no way it was Loubar, he's mortal." Nick told Natalie as he drove them to  
Tyler's loft. Tracey had decided to check out a lead that they had found at the crime  
scene.  
  
"You've only met Loubar that one time, maybe since then he got brought over."  
Natalie said, doubting it even as she spoke it. She remembered that night so well, a  
major city official had been assassinated and it had turned out to be Loubar. A chase  
had ensued and Nick had finally caught up with Loubar but was forced to let him go, or  
Nick would have revealed his true vampiric self. There was nothing unusual about that  
night, nothing that hadn't happened before but later that night had definitely been  
memorable...  
  
"Most of the vampires looked as though they had been surprised, they should  
have been able to sense him, it doesn't make any sense. Nat? Natalie?" Usually Nick  
was the one to drift off to another planet, not Natalie. There must be something wrong,  
he pulled into the alleyway of Tyler's loft and turned the car off. He turned to Natalie. "Is  
there something wrong?" His voice was deep with concern.  
  
"What, no, I'm fine." Natalie stuttered and quickly got out of the car, she didn't  
want to get into it right now, plus there was nothing to get into, or so she told herself.  
  
Mira was standing at the door to the loft talking to two officers Nick assumed  
were assigned to Tyler. The two FBI agents hadn't arrived yet and the other man that  
had been with Mira, had gone with Tracey. There was something about the guy that  
Nick couldn't place, he'd ask Mira about him later but he didn't need to, for as soon as  
they walked into the loft, he saw him. Kwai Chang Caine and that man was his son.  
  
Caine saw Nick out the corner of his but had felt his presence long before he  
entered the door. Without causing comment, he would have to talk to Nick later, he  
simply nodded at Nick.  
__________________________  
  
Scully sighed, things were just getting weirder and weirder, not that was unusual  
in her case but this time...  
  
"There is no such thing as vampires Mulder." She told him for the forth time since  
they had gotten in the car. "Can't you, just for once, give me a rational explanation?"   
  
"After everything you've seen and heard, you still can't be open to this new  
possibility? Plus why would I have you, if actually had rational ideas?" He joked, he  
could see she was still upset over their last case, and tired as hell. He made a promise  
to himself to send her to bed early, not that she'd go... "Plus, vampire's probably live  
among us, have jobs, pay taxes. I mean how do I know you're not a vampire?"  
  
"Oh, you've found me out, yes, that's right, I'm a vampire. Mulder?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Shut up." He smiled, at least he got a rise out of her.  
____________________________  
  
Angie was completely oblivious to everything, she didn't even notice that people  
had come in. She was completely lost in her work, something she hadn't been able to do  
in a long time and was thankful for it. Caine had somehow put her mind at ease, at least  
for a little while.   
  
Rollie, on the other hand, didn't have so much luck, when Mira and the others  
had knocked on his door, he had been pacing back and forth. Which is what he was still  
doing, as they told him their assumptions about Loubar.  
  
"So you think someone has hired Loubar to kill people with a fetish for drinking  
blood? I think you have it completely wrong, it's not his style. On a grand scene, there's  
nothing big and flashy about it, Loubar would have nothing to do with it." Rollie said with  
much annoyance, it was getting so hard to stay calm when all he wanted to do was  
punch a wall, or preferably, Loubar.  
  
"Maybe he's running out of money and this way he can get one job done and,  
well, um, take care of you." Scully argued, he could see that he was hurting but this was  
the only explanation they had.   
  
"There might be some connection between all these victims, something that's  
trying to be kept secret." Mulder started, a light bouncing in his eyes. Scully rolled her  
eyes but Mulder continued on. "There are too many coincidences, too many similarity's  
in the way these vampires were killed, for it to just be random acts of vigilantes."  
  
"Did you just say 'vampires'?" Mira looked blankly at him, reflecting the same look  
as everyone else.  
  
"Look, Mr. Tyler, you and your partner are the only ones that can help us catch  
Loubar." Mulder ignored the question. He then remembered his earlier promise he had  
made to himself. "Why don't you tell us in the morning, your decision." Then because  
everyone else was still giving him the 'Did he just say vampire' look he grabbed Scully's  
arm and left.  
  
Natalie looked around, she didn't like the fact that this Agent Mulder suspected  
that there were 'real' vampires, but Nick was nowhere to be seen. She told Rollie and  
Mira that she was going down to the morgue to help with the autopsy and left. Soon  
after, Mira left, leaving Rollie alone in the loft with Angie.  
  
Rollie knew he had to talk to Angie about whether to help catch Loubar. It wasn't  
a question in Rollie's mind, he wanted Loubar, he wanted to hurt Loubar. Not for  
intruding on Rollie's life, taking his face but because he hurt Angie. He needed to talk to  
Angie, he wanted to ask her what she was working on, how her day was, anything but  
this bloody silence! That was it, he was going to talk to her right now.  
  
"Angie!" Rollie shouted, then ran up the stairs to her work space but she wasn't  
there. Rollie started to panic, 'what if Loubar got her?', the thought made him sick to his  
stomach. He ran down the stairs and almost collided with Angie.  
  
"Rollie, what's wrong?" He looked terrible, worse than he had since Loubar had  
escaped. For the first time since Rollie had been shot, after Loubar had escaped, she  
looked him in the eye. She couldn't believe how much she missed not looking into those  
eyes, how much she missed him. "We need to talk."  
  
Rollie had never been so relieved, at least she was making the first move. They  
sat down, Rollie on the couch, Angie on the chair. For a long time neither spoke, they  
just looked at each other, trying to read what the other was thinking. Rollie was the first  
to speak.  
  
"Angie, I...I want..." Angie leaned forward and took his hand. "I want you to be  
happy, I want for you to forget about what happened, even though it's practically  
impossible. I..."  
  
"Rollie, you do know that what happened with Loubar, was NOT your fault, right?"  
Rollie looked away, Angie sat down close beside him. "Rol, this was not your fault, you  
couldn't have done anything to change it. Like I told you before, *nothing's* changed  
between us." She knew it was a lie and so did he, things had changed, drastically.  
  
"If I had never got involved with Loubar, with Leo and the police, if I had just done  
what I do best, movies, then..."  
  
"Then you wouldn't be the Rollie Tyler I know."  
  
"Ang?" Rollie made a decision, he knew it would hurt but it was better for both of  
them or least her. "I'm leaving." Angie stared at him in disbelief, she didn't understand.  
Rollie stood up and walked towards his room.  
  
"You're what!" Angie yelled, Rollie kept walking, Angie grabbed a pillow and threw  
it at him. He whirled around.  
  
"Loubar just wants me, I don't want him to use you to get to me. I'm leaving."  
  
Angie's eyes started to tear up, from fear, anger and sadness, as she walked  
towards him. "If you leave I'm coming with you. You're not leaving me alone." Because  
she had lost all rational thought in her head, she quickly wrapped her arms around his  
neck, pulling him close.   
  
At first Rollie resisted, he couldn't let her get hurt because of his staying but her  
body felt so good pressed against his. He buried his face her hair, it smelt so good, she  
smelt so good. Angie pressed her head into the crane of his neck, when his arms  
slipped around her, she felt electric tingles all down her spine. His arms first pressed  
lightly against her, then he held her with his full strength. They had hugged many times  
before but this embrace was a completely new feeling. Sparks shot threw both their  
bodies, neither had been so happy, just to be holding onto each other. Rollie didn't want  
to move, now that he had finally discovered what he had been missing for so long. He  
wanted to experience more of her, her lips, her neck, her...  
  
"Let's get Loubar."   
___________________________  
New York City, Chandler Hotel  
11:32 PM  
  
Scully was busy looking over files in her hotel room, when she heard a soft knock  
at the door of the adjourning room. Mulder entered and frowned at her when he saw she  
was working.   
  
"I thought I said for you to go to bed?" Mulder folded his arms and looked down at  
her.  
  
"Since when do you get to tell me what to do?" Scully closed the file she was  
looking at, and put it next to the bed.  
  
Mulder came around to the other side of the bed and jumped down on the bed.  
"Since I'm the guy." Scully slugged him in the arm but gave him a smile.  
  
"So, did you find something out about the case?"  
  
"Scully, you're always business, never pleasure. Actually this has nothing to do  
with the case." Mulder was desperately trying to keep his mind straight but her smell  
was driving him mad. The smell of Scully, something he had come to love over the  
years, yes love, he loved the way she smelled. He have no real reason for coming into  
her room, except for the fact that he wanted to be around her. He always felt alone  
when he was without her, never in his life had he been as happy as when he was with  
her, even since his sister had been around. When they were going through hell together,  
as Mulder and Scully most often did, he never wanted to be anywhere else. He knew  
they were friends but sometimes he wanted more...  
  
"So? What's up?" Scully wondered why Mulder would be in her room if it wasn't  
about a case, maybe he needed a favour. Whatever he wanted, she would do, of course  
she'd put up a fight, he would expect her to but the truth was, that Scully would do  
anything for Mulder. She considered that a moment, why was it that she would do  
anything for him? They were only friends and partners but recently their relationship  
developed into something much more deeper then friendship. But maybe that was just  
her, she would never consider him reciprocating her feelings.  
  
"Nothing, I just wanted to talk." That sounded much too serious, he thought to  
himself. "Nothing in particular, I mean just a nice friendly chat, just in general." Why was  
he feeling like a teenager trying to ask a girl out? This was Scully, his Scully. 'Whoa,  
when did I start using the possessive when I said her name?' Mulder was shocked by  
that, she wasn't his but he felt so close to her that...'You came here to talk so you better  
start talking or Scully's going to think something's up.' "So how's it going?" 'Smooth,  
she's going to kick me out of here real soon.'  
  
"Mulder are you okay?" He looked like a little boy with that grin and innocent eyes  
but there was no denying that he was acting extremely strange.  
  
"I'm sorry, I just..." What was he doing, was he about to tell her how he felt about  
her, she'd kill him! "Um, I think that due to recent events...you should take a vacation."  
Where'd that come from? He didn't think she needed a vacation but it was all he could  
think of to say, what was wrong with him. He needed to get out of there, fast, before he  
said something really stupid. "Um, never mind, I don't know what I'm talking about." He  
stood up and walked towards the door. "Good-night Scully." Then he quickly closed the  
door.  
  
Scully sat staring at the door, completely confused. What had just happened?  
Had Mulder figured out how she felt about him and tried to let her down softly by telling  
her to go on vacation? No, that was stupid and how *did* she feel about him? They were  
just friends, nothing more, or at least that's what she told herself. She settled into the  
bed and turned off the light and her thoughts.  
____________________________  
New York City, Alleyway  
February 9, 8:36 AM  
  
"Massive blood loss, through these two puncture wounds, approximate time of  
death, between one and three this morning." Natalie was leaning over the dead body the  
police had found, telling the others something she wanted to deny. It was most definitely  
a vampire killing, although she was starting worry that these were coming in too  
frequently. Last night while she was at the morgue, the other coroner admitted to having  
over five dead bodies come in exactly like this, blood sucked dry. The vampires of New  
York were going to have to start worrying about exposure.  
  
"There's no other bodies, so I don't think this is our guy. But the killer might be his  
next victim." Mira observed. There was still no evidence of Loubar having anything to do  
with this but she knew for sure that he was here. When Mira went to Rollie's loft this  
morning, there was a letter addressed to him, without letting Rollie or Angie know about  
it she had it checked out. The letter read;  
  
The time has come for you to meet your demise.  
Those that you care for, will not be spared.  
The one you love the most, will cause you the ultimate pain.  
And will die in front of you.  
Your friend,  
Loubar  
  
Mira thanked God that Rollie and Angie had not read this, they had enough to  
deal with. Loubar hadn't left any evidence of himself and they still had no idea where he  
was. "Take the saliva sample from the victim and see if you can't find out who this  
murderer is."  
  
Mulder was wondering around looking at the scene. This was a vampire killing,  
there was no other explanation, no matter how many times Scully tried to force her idea  
a killer who only *thinks* he's a vampire. A man in a police uniform approached him.  
  
"Some guy says that he saw a Mr. Frank Hougerd coming out of this alleyway at  
around two thirty this morning." The uniform that looked strangely familiar told him.  
  
"Thanks I'll check it out." Mulder walked over to Mira. "Do you know who that guy  
is?" Mulder asked trying to place where he had seen the cop before.  
  
"No, I've never seen him before." Then it suddenly dawned on both of them and  
they took off chasing after Loubar.  
  
Loubar had seen them chase after him and took off, running out of the alleyway  
and into traffic. Mulder was almost hit by a car as he pursued him, then jumping over  
another car. Loubar ran into a crowd of people, knocking down some as he ran with  
Mulder in quick pursuit.   
  
Loubar ran around a corner, turning into a heavily dense street, filled with people.  
Mulder had pulled out his gun but it was too much of a risk to shoot it. People seeing the  
gun and the chase quickly tried to get out of the way to no avail. Loubar had turned into  
a building, Mulder paused in the doorway and looked toward Mira who motioned that she  
would go around back. Before Mulder could enter the building, a huge explosion from  
inside, threw him back a full four feet. Mira turned to see Mulder sprawled on the  
ground, unconscious. Within a second she was on the phone to paramedics telling them  
an officer was down. Scully who had seen the chase ensue, was beside Mulder in a  
gesture of both love and action. She was examining him closely and shouting orders to  
anyone who would listen.  
  
The police from the nearby crime scene were busy pulling people away from the  
explosion, closing off the road way and preparing for anything else Loubar had planned.   
  
_____________________  
  
After the fire had been put out, Agent Mulder had been taken to the hospital and  
the area had been searched, with no luck, for Loubar, Natalie offered to go talk to Rollie  
and Angie about what had happened. It was getting dark so Natalie dropped by the hotel  
to pick up Nick first.   
  
"Nick?" Natalie walked into the dark room, finding herself in the same position  
she had been in yesterday. Nick asleep on the bed, her standing there trying to wake  
him up. And again, she sat down on the bed beside him, realizing how much she loved  
to watch him sleep. He looked so peaceful, when he was awake he was always plagued  
by some sort of guilt, something he'd done in the past that had come back to haunt him.  
Or he thought he had done something to Natalie and felt unnecessarily guilty for. He  
gave her such mixed signals, one minute she thought he loved her the next that he  
wanted her out of his life. Like that one night after a failed attempt to catch Loubar...  
  
**************  
Nick's apartment  
September 17, 2:53 AM  
  
Nick paced back and forth, while Natalie sat on a chair watching him. He had said  
he needed to talk to her and as usual with Nick, it was serious. But she had never seen  
him look this way, not in all the years she had known him. His expression was hard to  
explain, he looked like he had a secret that he didn't want anyone to known but he also  
looked like a little boy who had finally learned to ride a bike. It was fear mixed with hope  
mixed with realization. Natalie was getting really curious but she didn't want to rush him,  
so she sat back, trying to think of other things.  
  
Nick was terrified of what he was about to do but for some reason he wanted to  
tell her, he wanted her to know how he felt but it left a risk of never seeing her again. He  
knew she cared for him but he was never sure about how much. It was a great risk he  
was about to take but it had to be done.  
  
"I love you." Nick blurted out, he had hoped to sort of beat around the bush or  
give some kind of explanation but his voice had taken it's own path.   
  
Natalie stared at him for a few seconds, this was not something she was  
expecting, nor that it surprised her. Nick walked over and sat down on the floor in front  
of her. They both looked deep into each others eyes, then Nick spoke again.  
  
"By telling you this, I've put you in danger. Immortals are not supposed to fall in  
love with mortals, which is why I waited so long to tell you. But I've known since the first  
moment I saw you, that I was in love with you. I shouldn't be telling you this because I  
love you, I don't want you to be hurt or worse." He could barely finish the sentence, if  
Natalie died...He wasn't going to think like that now. "What is the purpose of living  
forever if you never love? A moment of happiness, is better than a lifetime of sorrow and  
loneliness. I know you may not feel the same way but I had to tell you. I have no right to  
ask you anything in return and I ask you not to act on this, just know I'll love you  
forever."  
  
He left then, leaving Natalie to her own thoughts and tears.  
*********************  
  
They hadn't spoken of it since, whenever Nat had tried to bring it up, Nick would  
either change the subject or make some excuse to leave. Maybe he had changed his  
mind, that he never did love her. That thought alone made her eyes well up in tears.  
  
She was so lost in thought she never saw Nick wake up. When he saw the tears  
in her eyes, he wrapped his arms around her, letting her cry on his shoulder. Something  
she hardly ever did. "Nat, what's wrong, what happened?" Concerned he pulled Nat onto  
his lap, rocking her, her head leaned into his chest, he had never seen her cry so hard.  
He held her there, comforting her, his love easing her tears until finally they stopped.  
Embarrassed, she sat up but Nick never released his arms, she tried to move away but  
he only held her tighter. "Nat?"  
  
"I'm fine I just haven't been getting enough sleep or something, sorry." No matter  
how much she tried to move away from him, he wouldn't let go, the look he gave, one of  
love and concern, caused her tears to come flooding back. Furious with herself, she  
brushed them impatiently away. Nick wrapped his arm around her more and took his  
free hand to brush away the tears. His hand rested on her face, his thumb tracing her  
lips. He slowly moved his face closer to her, leaning in...  
  
"Brrrriiiing!" Nick's cell phone rang. Causing both to come back to reality, Natalie  
moved off the bed and grabbed the phone, handing it to Nick, not daring to look at his  
eyes.  
  
"Knight." He barked angrily into the phone. "Ya..., sure..., actually she's right  
here..., alright, I'll do that. Bye" Nick got out of bed. "I'm supposed to escort you to  
Tyler's loft. The police think anyone involved in this case is in danger. So they're pairing  
us up." Nick moved around the room, refusing to look up at Natalie. 'I'd almost kissed  
her, great way to protect her.' Nick was furious with himself.  
  
Natalie was caught between being furious with herself and being incredibly  
embarrassed. What was she thinking? Nick didn't need her crying on his shoulder, nor  
did he probably want her around and now they were stuck together. "What about  
Tracey?"  
  
"She's being paired up with one of the local police." Nick went into the bathroom  
to get ready and they left for Tyler's apartment.  
___________________________________  
New York City, Tigert's Cafe  
6:34 PM  
  
"The cops haven't found anything yet." Loubar sat across the booth from a man, if  
you could call him that. Though, some people refused to believe that Loubar, himself,  
was a man and not some monster.  
  
"I don't care, they're too much a threat." The man across from Loubar told him, he  
talked calmly and with a touch of an accent.  
  
"You know it'll cost you extra."   
  
"Oh, you won't be killing any of them, I just want you to mess around with them.  
Hurt them but don't kill them, we'll take care of that."  
  
"There will be two others, who will assist the police in their investigation. They  
have gotten in my way several times before and I would like to take care of them  
myself." Loubar told the man plainly, he had already thought of the pain he would put  
Tyler and Angie through and smiled at the thought.  
  
"I, of course, can understand revenge. Do what you must without getting in my  
way." The man stood and left, leaving Loubar to ponder what sort of torture to put the  
'good guys' through.  
______________________________  
New York City, Rollie Tyler's Loft  
7:41 PM   
  
"It's gotta be some kind of set-up." Rollie told Nick and Natalie. "And you're right to  
be concerned about Loubar, he'll kill anyone that gets in his way." Rollie glanced over at  
Angie who was sitting beside him.  
  
"I found out some information on Frank Hougerd." Angie walked over to her  
computer pulling up a file on the man. "He lives in a good neighbourhood, in an  
apartment, with..." Angie pressed a few buttons and the computer showed four different  
rooms. "...a wonderful security system. We can watch here, see who comes in and out  
of the building. This way we can see if anything strange happens without putting  
anyone's life at risk. I also was looking into the other victims, the 'vampires' we'll call  
them." Nick and Natalie shared a look. "All of them having incredibly large amounts of  
money in their bank accounts, which is strange considering that most don't even have a  
source of income." Nick thought of his own rather large bank account. "Most of them are  
drifters, with several aliases, which is why you'd find it strange they even had bank  
accounts. But the most remarkable thing is, that on December nineteenth, they all  
deposited one point two million dollars into their bank accounts."  
  
"That's one hell of a large Christmas bonus." Natalie remarked  
  
"So most likely someone else put that money in those accounts, like a business."  
Nick suggested.  
  
"Most businesses pay their employees through direct-deposit, and a bank would  
have records of who sent the money. Unfortunately, those files happen to be confidential  
and even Angie can't get at them." Rollie said, moving to her side." But maybe you guys  
can."  
  
"We'll do that. This by the way, is it illegal?" Angie smiled innocently at him. "I  
don't want to know. Thanks for your help, call us if anything comes up on those security  
cameras." Nick smiled as he and Natalie left.  
  
"Will do, watch out for vampires on your way home." Rollie joked. It was a good  
thing Natalie and Nick's backs were towards them, for they broke out into a huge smile.  
_________________________________  
New York City, Chandler Hotel  
8:01 PM  
  
"Mulder lie down."  
  
"Scully, are you trying to get me into bed?" Mulder asked seductively.  
  
"Shut up Mulder, get in bed." Scully pulled off his jacket and placed it over a  
chair. Mulder reluctantly crawled under the covers but propped up the pillow so he could  
sit up. He was fine, no concussion, just a bump on his head and a scratch above his  
eye.  
  
"You know they told us to stay by each other at *all* times." Mulder patted the  
place beside him. Scully sat down.  
  
"And I have no intention of leaving, besides if I do, you'll probably go off and get  
into more trouble."  
  
"I..." Mulder breathed innocently. "And I thought I was supposed to be taking care  
of you."  
  
"Why would you need to be taking care of me?" Scully asked angrily.  
  
"Come on Scully, I know what seeing that boy die did to you." Scully went to get  
up but Mulder grabbed her arm. "Why do you try to act all tough around me? You don't  
need to, I know you're strong, hell, you're stronger and tougher than me." Mulder  
touched her face with his finger. "Why can't you just tell me what's wrong, why can't you  
just let me help you?"  
  
"I don't need your help." Scully told him angrily, trying to pull her arm away from  
his grasp. "Besides I'm fine, you're the one that almost got blown up." The thought of it  
almost brought tears to her eyes and Mulder saw it.   
  
He took the hand farthest away from him and sat up folding his legs underneath  
him, then took her other hand. They faced each other, holding hands, the closeness was  
enough to scare Scully, she pulled away and stood up walking towards the bathroom  
door. Mulder was up in a flash, he placed his hands on her hips and spun her around,  
leaving his hands there. She pushed him away and walked out into the hallway. He  
followed.  
  
"Leave me alone Mulder, go back to bed, you need to rest." She stared at the  
floor, she didn't want him to known how she felt about him and that's what scared her.  
Mulder was everything to her and she wouldn't lose him by telling him she loved him.  
Yes, she loved him and not the way you love your best friend but in a much more  
intimate way. She knew he didn't share those feelings, why would he? All she was to  
him was his partner, someone who always questioned his opinions and laughed at his  
assumptions and theory's.  
  
"Scully, what the hell is going on? Why won't you tell me?" Mulder asked in a  
caring voice, his finger tilted her face up to look at him. 'Of course, she thinks your  
hitting on her and it's scaring the hell out of her. Of course she doesn't return those  
feelings I have for her.' How could he have been so stupid? Actually thinking that she  
could love someone like him, he had nothing to offer such a wonderful, amazing woman.  
He would just have to settle with loving her as a friend and that was it. He immediately  
dropped is hand and turned back to the room, muttering an, "I'm sorry."   
  
Mulder grabbed a pillow and a spare blanket and sat down in the chair. Scully  
came into the room and locked the door.  
  
"What are you dong?" Scully asked him, her voice angrily.  
  
"You said to go to sleep." He didn't hide the frustration in his voice.  
  
"In the bed!" Scully yelled  
  
"No, you take the bed." His voice had a hard edge. Scully walked over to him  
grabbed the pillow and the blanket from him.  
  
"You were the one who got hurt today and ended up in the hospital, you get the  
bed." Scully yelled, never more angrier at him and it wasn't because of the bed situation.  
  
"Well, I'm giving you the bed and don't *you* tell me what to do." Mulder yelled  
back at her, he didn't mean to but he was upset. He grabbed the blanket from her but  
she held on, they both tugged at it, until finally, it ripped, sending them both falling back.  
They looked at each other, both lying on the ground and burst out laughing.  
  
"Now what?" Scully asked, with a smile.  
  
"Well if you promise not to jump me, while I'm sleeping, I think we can share the  
bed." Mulder joked. He stood up and helped her to her feet.  
  
"I'll try." Scully said sarcastically.  
___________________________________  
New York City, Rollie Tyler's Loft  
February 10, 12:47 AM  
  
Rollie was sitting, uncomfortably in his chair, Angie and him had been watching  
the security cameras all night, not that Rollie minded being around her. After their rather  
long hug, she had gone and slept in his room. Rollie had removed the bed that Loubar  
had been in and gotten a new one, Rollie had slept on the couch. Though neither had  
told each other how they really felt, they had returned to being friends, almost. Rollie  
thought about her all the time, he wanted to be around her all the time, he wanted to  
touch her all the time. He succeeded with the first two and had found some inventive  
ways of getting to do the third. He'd brush his hand across her's when reaching for  
something, or touch the small of her back when he was getting something. It was all he  
could do, for the moment.  
  
Angie hadn't missed any of his small gestures and enjoyed them, even though  
she thought he meant nothing by them. She longed to be in his arms again, it was like  
being in the desert for a long time and someone giving you just a small sip of water, then  
sending you out again. It was all she thought about, him, him touching her, his arms  
wrapped around her, it was driving her crazy. "You want something to drink?" Angie  
stood, relieved to be able to stretch her legs.  
  
"Please." She walked down the stairs to the kitchen. Rollie sat blue down in front  
of the computer and typed some keys. "Watch the tv for me Blue." He told the little robot  
dog and followed Angie down to the kitchen.  
  
"Need some help?" Rollie asked. Angie was making some coffee when he had  
come down.   
  
"Nope, I'm fine." Angie smiled, then frowned when Blue started barking. Rollie  
rushed up the stairs.  
  
"It's just an e-mail." He called down to her. He opened the mail and his face lost  
all it's colour. There was the same message from Loubar, that Mira had intercepted  
earlier that day.  
  
"Who's it fr...Rol?" Angie saw the look on his face and knelt down beside his  
chair, putting the cups aside. "Rol?" she asked on the brink of panic, he looked scared,  
more scared than she had ever seen him.  
  
"It's nothing." He quickly shut the window on the computer. When he looked at  
her, his eyes glazed over. He dropped out of the chair and kneeled in front of her. He  
gathered her up in his arms, burying his face in her hair. He couldn't lose her, he needed  
her too much, he loved her too much.   
  
She sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around him, letting her own tears run down  
her cheeks. She knew what and who that e-mail had contained, without even having to  
hear. It scared her that something like that could shake Rollie this badly. She took his  
face in her hands and looked into his eyes.  
  
"He, said...goddamit, he said he was going to kill you." Rollie told her, 'the one he  
loved the most' as the letter had read, 'will die in front of you.' "He wouldn't, he wouldn't  
kill you if I... didn't love you." He looked up to her eyes, nervous for her reaction.  
  
"Well, I would have a problem then, because I love you." Angie told him, relieving  
him of his worries.  
  
"Are you sure, I mean I'm sure but..."  
  
"I'm as sure as I've ever been about anything." Angie told him, never in her life  
had she been more sure about anything and she had never dreamed that he loved her  
back.  
  
"I can't believe it took us this long." Rollie smiled, hugging her close. He drew  
back to look at her face, he brought his hand to her face, which was wet with tears.  
"Don't cry, Angel." He brought her face forward and kissed her forehead, then both her  
cheeks ever so gently. He tilted her head up to face his and leaned forwards...  
  
"Arff, Arff!" Blue squawked. Rollie sighed heavily and drew away from Angie.  
  
"We'll, finish this later." He kissed her forehead again and they both stood to look  
at the screen. Rollie grabbed the phone as soon as he saw the screen. "We found  
something."  
_______________________________________   
Ford Apartments  
12:48 AM  
  
The apartment was well furnished, everything in it had been strategically placed  
by a Interior Decorator. The apartment was dark, with only a few windows but even  
those were covered in heavy drapes that didn't let any light in. Frank Hougerd kept the  
apartment clean himself, he didn't want some housekeeper invading his privacy. He had  
statues and vases and other 'trinkets' older than one could imagine and worth more than  
twice that. His art collection, which he rarely showed to anyone were all originals, art  
that museums would love to have, or have back. He prided himself on his expensive  
taste and women were no exception.  
  
She was an artist herself, just out of school, she was young and naive, trusting  
him to show her a good time. Which of course he would.  
  
He was never one to waste, after lighting several candles, he took her to his  
couch. He crushed his lips to her's, tasting her mouth. Then he moved down her neck,  
brushing her hair out of the way and tilting her head sideways to allow him full access to  
her neck. The eyes that had once been a dark brown had turned gold with passion and  
anticipation. His normally straight teeth had grown two fangs and he raised his head,  
only to plunge down into her neck. He tasted her, drank her, it was the most intimate  
one could be with someone. He saw her dreams, memories, worries, pain and passion.  
He drank until she was dry and then threw her limp, dead body away. He leaned his  
head back and closed his eyes, relishing in the taste of her.  
  
He never saw the stake being plunged into his heart but his eyes wiped open at  
the pain. He saw his slayer, the eyes were dead with not an emotion in them. The  
vampire looked at his killer with uncomprehending eyes before they lost all sight and  
were dead.  
_________________________________  
12:58 AM  
  
"Mr. Hougerd?" Mulder called, knocking on the apartment door. "Frank Hougerd,  
this is the FBI, we just want to talk...do you smell smoke?" Mulder asked the others,  
standing with him.  
  
A small trickle of smoke came form under the door and before Mulder got an  
answer from the others he started kicking at the door. On his third try it opened, showing  
a small fire coming from a knocked over candle. Scully ran to get a fire extinguisher from  
the outside hallway and put the fire out. The others started to look for Hougerd, it didn't  
take very long.  
  
"Found him." Nick yelled, looking at the dead body with a stake through the heart.  
A young woman lay beside him, also dead, with bite marks on her neck, that were all too  
familiar to Nick. They were hoping to get to him before this happened.  
  
"Looks like Loubar got here before us." Peter observed. He'd been all over New  
York that night with Mira, looking for anyone who might have had contact with Loubar,  
with no luck. He was also starting of get worried about his father, who he hadn't seen  
since yesterday.  
  
Natalie didn't need a thorough investigation to see that this was identical to the  
others. When she went comment to Nick about it, she couldn't see him. The window to  
the fire escape was open.   
_______________________________  
  
The apartment roof was dark but Nick's eyes had grown accustomed to darkness  
long ago. He heard someone coming through a doorway, Agent Scully, they saw each  
other and nodded. A dark figure was bent over the side of the building, Scully and Nick  
pulled out their guns, aiming it at the figure.  
  
"Federal Agent, turn around!" Scully yelled when she was a foot away. The man  
turned around, raising his hands in the air but he was laughing. Scully looked at Nick  
nervously. "On your knees!"  
  
A blinding and deafening explosion erupted beside Nick, knocking him and Scully  
down. The man that could only be Loubar, jumped off the side of the building. Nick  
rushed over to the side but couldn't see anyone. No Loubar. Mulder, Mira and Peter ran  
up the stairs to see what had happened.   
  
Mulder ran over to Scully, who denied being hurt before he even asked. The  
others came to peer over the side, Peter opted to stand back, as a result of being afraid  
of heights.  
  
"He just vanished, jumped over the side and...gone." Nick explained.  
"Then that was definitely Victor Loubar." Mira stated.  
________________________________________  
Outside a Warehouse  
February 10, 7:34 PM  
  
"With the tracking devise, Scully placed on Loubar, we traced him to this  
warehouse where he returned to periodically throughout the day. So we're assuming this  
is where he's hiding." Angie told the others who were all crammed into the FX van.  
  
"You all have your positions, so let's get out of here before I get claustrophobic."  
Mira yelled.  
  
Peter, Nick and his partner Tracey, Rollie, Mira and Mulder all pilled out of the  
van and got into their positions surrounding the large worn down warehouse. Angie, Nat  
and Scully all huddled around the Ambler, a portable computer Angie used in the van.   
  
"I'm getting a reading from the north part of the building on the third floor." Angie  
told them all through her headset.  
  
"I don't understand why I'm not out there?" Scully complained to the two other  
women.  
  
"Because you have a concussion and because us little girls can't take care of  
ourselves, so we need someone with a gun." Natalie explained to her friend.  
  
"We're going in." Mira told everyone.  
  
Rollie entered first, knowing he had thirty seconds to disarm the security system  
before the entire building exploded. The bomb was surprisingly easy to disarm and the  
others entered quickly. Nick and Tracey took the stairs to the third floor, where Angie  
had said the reading was coming from. Rollie and Mira took the second floor and Mulder  
and Peter spread out on the first.  
  
"Loubar still hasn't moved yet." Angie told them. The three woman were crowded  
around the computer watching the flashing light on the screen, that was Loubar's  
tracker. They didn't see the small piece of tubing coming through a crack in the door,  
nor did they notice the colourless and odourless gas coming into the van through the  
tubing.  
  
When Nick and Tracey reached the area where Loubar was supposed to be, all  
they found was the small tracking devise sitting in a chair. Nick grabbed his microphone  
to tell the others but was interrupted by a loud explosion coming from outside. Nick ran  
to the widow and saw the FX van engulfed in flames.   
  
The others had heard the explosion also and were running outside. Mulder was  
the first to reach the van. Without thinking, or only thinking of Scully, he reached for the  
door, already burning from the fire and burnt his hand. Peter reached him in time to pull  
him away, just as another explosion came from the van.  
  
Tracey had grabbed a fire extinguisher and was hopelessly trying to put the  
massive fire out. Mira was on the phone to the fire station and trying to hold Rollie back  
from trying to jump into the flames to save Angie.   
  
Nick, who had stopped caring about being exposed as a vampire, was trying to  
pull the back door off. As he tried, his coat sleeve caught on fire and Tracey flung him to  
the ground, smothering the fire caught to him.  
  
There was nothing they could do but watch as their loved ones, Angie, Natalie  
and Scully, burned in the flames. They all stood in shock, Nick, Mulder and Rollie just  
stared at the flames, refusing to believe what the others knew to be true.  
  
Long after the fire trucks had come and gone, the fire finally dead, with all that  
was left were ashes, Mulder sat staring. He couldn't think, there was nothing but  
complete and udder numbness. He didn't know how long he had been sitting there,  
when someone helped him up took him to his car and drove him home. When he was  
finally in his hotel room did he notice Peter, who nodded his head and left without a  
word.  
  
Without thinking Mulder went into Scully's room and opened her suitcase. He  
didn't know what he was looking for, some kind proof that Scully was still alive, though  
he knew he would never find it in her suitcase. He took one of her blouses and held it for  
a second, then it finally hit him. Scully was dead, the only one he loved, the only person  
he lived for, was dead. No, she couldn't be dead, he knew it, there was something  
wrong with this picture. Yes, there was something wrong with this picture, Scully was  
dead and whether he realized it now of later, she was dead. He loved her and he never  
got to tell her. The weight of this realization sent him crashing to the floor, lying curled  
up in a ball, clutching her shirt. He first felt tears slipping down his cheeks, then he  
started to sob, he had never felt this sort of pain before, not even when his sister  
Samantha had disappeared. He cried for hours, thinking of Scully.  
_______________________________  
Angie's Apartment  
February 11, 12:36 AM  
  
Rollie didn't know how he had gotten there, but he felt he needed to be there.  
After Mira had insisted he go home, after hours of standing staring at the burned down  
van, he was dropped off at home. But that wasn't where he wanted to be, there were too  
many fresh memories of her there. He couldn't even say her name, even think it, for it  
brought back the utter feeling of the loss he had just experienced. He'd lost many people  
in his life but this, this was above and beyond anything he'd ever experienced before. It  
was like a part of him was missing, the only part that mattered. It was unexplainable, this  
pain he felt. It was something he never wanted to deal with and especially with her.  
Angie. God, what had he done? He should have just left when he had a chance. Loubar  
had actually told Rollie he was going to kill Angie and Rollie did nothing but let her walk  
right into it. Hadn't he put her through enough? Loubar had raped Angie because he  
wanted to get back at Rollie and now he done it again, except this was much, much  
worse.  
  
He'd get back at Loubar and there was no doubt in his mind what he would do.  
___________________________  
A Rooftop  
1:27 AM  
  
Nick had no doubt in his mind of what he was going to do. There was no way he  
would live without Natalie, he didn't know how he had lived so long without her. He  
couldn't believe how much he had come to love her in what felt like such a short time.  
For him though, time was different than what mortals experienced. He thought he had  
forever or at least years before she or he would leave. He had made excuses about why  
he would never be fully with her but looking back, none of those things mattered. Even  
though they were selfish, he thought of all those reasons, they had been circling around  
in his head all night.  
  
LaCoix, his master told Nick that if he ever fell in love, LaCoix would kill that  
person but Nick could have done something to prevent that, work around that threat.  
Nick and Natalie would never be able to make love without Nick killing her but had they  
ever tried? Nick might have been able to take just a little but then again, if Nat had died  
at his own hand...  
  
Maybe this was, truly, the only way to be with Nat, but did he really have that kind  
of faith. Natalie thought he did and so he would have to trust her and walk into the sun,  
to end his vampire life and maybe start a new one with Nat.  
_______________________  
A Warehouse  
  
"So is it done?" The deep voice on the other side of the phone asked.  
  
"Yep, they're here." Loubar told him.  
  
"All three women? And everyone thinks they're dead?"  
  
"They will, until you give word to tell them otherwise." Loubar smiled, how much  
he loved putting Rollie through this pain.  
  
"Put the calls through now." The man hung up.  
_________________________  
Chandler Hotel  
  
Mulder was staring into the barrel of his gun, as he'd been doing for the past  
hour. He didn't want to live without Scully, he couldn't even imagine life without her but  
why couldn't he pull the trigger? He wasn't scared, he truly didn't want to live without her  
but there was something holding him back. Something in his gut was telling this wasn't  
right. Why would Loubar kill them, what purpose did it serve? No, she was dead, she  
wasn't coming back so he would join her...  
  
"Brrinng!" His cell phone rang, he wouldn't have answered it but something told  
him he should.  
  
"Hello?" He muttered into the phone.  
  
"Mulder? It's me, Scully." Mulder almost dropped the phone. It was her voice and  
either someone was playing a very cruel trick on him or it was really her.  
  
"Scully!?" Several sounds were being made in the background as the phone was  
being transferred to someone else.  
  
"Mr. Mulder, it's a pleasure to finally talk to you, after all, our last conversation  
was certainly short and you didn't know who I was." Loubar smiled into the phone.  
  
"Loubar?" Mulder was on his feet now, heading out the door towards the police  
station. "What's going on?"  
  
"I played a mean trick on you all. For that I must apologize but if..."  
  
"Where the HELL are you, when I find I am going to rip your heart out through  
your mouth! Where *are* you?" Mulder yelled, losing his temper. He was still reeling  
from the fact that Scully was alive. ALIVE! And he was going to do anything to keep her  
that way.  
  
"Now, now, Mr. Mulder, in time. I've sent a picture to the police of my three lovely  
guests. I know you and your friends are smart, so I'll be seeing you soon. " Then Loubar  
disconnected.  
__________________________________  
Midtown South Precinct  
2:35 AM  
  
All three men both rushed into the precinct at the same time, after receiving  
similar phone calls. They barged their way in to find Mira and Captain Van VanDuran.   
  
"Where's the picture?" Nick nearly screamed at the Captain, he was losing his  
patience fast. He couldn't believe Natalie was not dead because if he did and she really  
was dead, it would be like losing her all over again. He needed some proof, he needed  
desperately to believe.  
  
"What picture?" VanDuran had heard about the deaths and was quite upset  
himself by it. Which was why he was here at two thirty in the morning.   
"Loubar sent a picture here, of Angie, Natalie and Scully." Rollie said, who was  
surprisingly a lot more calm then the other two. He too refused to believe that Angie was  
alive, this was probably just some kind of joke Loubar was trying to pull on them. When  
they showed up to rescue those they loved, they would find them already dead and then  
Loubar would kill them. But Rollie had his own plans.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Mira asked them, confused. This was hard for her  
too, Angie had been her friend.  
  
"I think I know what they're talking about." Peter came in, holding a manila folder.  
"This was left at the front desk." He threw it on the table, open. A picture, in black and  
white showed Angie, Scully and Natalie sitting in a cement room, with no widows, just an  
overhead light. The room was bear except for, what looked like a closet, which held a  
small bathroom. "Nobody knows who left it, but I think I can guess." Peter said solemnly.  
  
"See, their still alive." Mulder said, who was absolutely sure that Scully was still  
alive.  
  
"We don't know that for sure, this is probably a trap, just some sick joke Loubar is  
playing on you. He wants you to think they're alive and when you go to find them, he'll  
kill you and they'll already be dead." VanDuran opposed, voicing Rollie's suspicions.  
  
Nick was around the desk in a second, his face in front of the Captain's. "They  
aren't dead and you and you're department are going to do everything in your power to  
get them back." Nick 'convinced' VanDuren.  
  
"Yes, that's right. This department and I will do everything in our power to help  
get your friends back." The Captain assured the group. Mulder looked strangely at Nick,  
if it had been any other time he might be suspicious of him but right now all he could be  
was grateful.  
  
"I can put this picture into my computer and see what I can come up with. I'm sure  
Loubar left us some clue, we just have to figure it out." Rollie told them. Even though he  
was unsure of what to make of this, he was still going to find this place if it killed him,  
which he was starting to think it might. Rollie grabbed the picture and left for the loft  
leaving Mira, Peter and VanDuren to deal with Nick and Mulder.  
  
"We have to assume that Loubar is intending to kill anyone who walks into  
wherever he is and that this is a trap. Even if Natalie, Angie and Scully are alive, he  
might kill them as soon as we get there." Mira pointed out, she had sat down in a chair  
in the corner trying to work this all out. "We probably have a better chance at surprise if  
we go in during the night."  
  
"Where's your father?" Nick asked Peter.  
  
"Actually that's why I'm here, I was wondering if maybe he'd been seen or picked  
up. I've been looking for him all night and I haven't found him yet." Peter told him.  
  
"Caine and I go way back, the first night we were at Tyler's loft he told me that he  
thought Natalie and I were in grave danger. Which is why he came to New York and I'm  
guessing he brought you." Nick told everyone.  
  
"He didn't really bring me, I just sort of came with him." Peter answered. There  
was something different about Nick Knight but he couldn't quite figure it out.  
  
Because Mulder couldn't think of anything else to do, he decided to concentrate  
on the case, try to find the connection. He left his cell phone number with them, in case  
they found something and left.  
  
Nick and Peter left together, saying they were going to look for Peter's father.  
Once they were out of view of the station, Peter pulled his gun out and pointed it at Nick.  
  
"Alright, talk. How do you know my father and why am I sensing some kind of, for  
lack of a better word, evil?" Nick had drawn his gun as soon as Peter had gone for it and  
was unwavered by Peter's intrusive questions. Nick's gun started to grow unbearably hot  
and burned his hand, he dropped the gun.  
  
"What the hell?" Nick growled at him, his eyes growing yellow and his fangs  
started to protrude from his mouth. At this site, Peter lowered his gun.  
  
"Holy shit, what are you? Wait don't answer that question, I think I can figure it  
out on my own. My father knows you?" Peter asked him, calmly down as Nick went back  
to normal.  
  
"I've been looking for a cure to this, I want to be mortal, not a vampire. I thought  
your father might be able to help me fine this cure. He didn't find one but he became a  
very trusted and good friend of mine. But what I don't understand, is you, are you a  
Shaolin Priest like your father, you don't bare the tatoos." Nick asked him, they both had  
put there guns away then and were walking down the darkened street.  
  
"I trained to be one but being a cop was more important to me." Peter admitted,  
Nick could relate. Normally Nick would have moved on by now, different city, name, job  
but he loved his job and he loved Natalie..."Do you know that guy?" Peter interrupted his  
thoughts.  
  
Ahead of them a figure dressed all in black, stood unmoving, watching them as  
they approached him. Within a second, Nick knew who it was. LaCoix. He could sense  
his master from the police station but he had just passed it off as being so confused.  
"You might want to leave, he's not exactly friendly." Nick told him, Peter nodded and left.  
  
"Nicholas, it's been awhile has it not? I've heard you've hit quite a misfortune. The  
young doctor has died, I am told." LaCoix smiled at Nick, although Nick was some what  
of a son to him, he still did enjoy seeing Nick in pain. "But you do not seem to upset by  
this, have my ears been wrong?"  
  
"LaCoix what are you doing here?" Nick asked, not having the patience for his  
small talk.  
  
"Why, my son, I've come to help you. With the case you are working on, that is.  
Vampires found dead with their latest kill, dead beside them. Oh, young Nicholas, you  
have no idea of what you are dealing with. Now as much as I love to divulge secrets into  
the open, I would like to talk to the young FBI agent, too."  
  
" Fox Mulder? Why him?" Nick questioned. LaCoix only stood there. "Alright I'll  
call him, where does he meet, *us*?"  
______________________________  
The Mirror Nightclub  
3:02 AM  
  
Mulder walked into the darkened club, with blaring music and only a few patrons  
remaining. Most had either found someone to go home with or had given up and left  
alone. The atmosphere was gothic and erotic, with only a few lit candles and no  
windows. Mulder was about to leave, when he saw Nick and some other man sitting at a  
nearby table.  
  
"So, find something?" Mulder asked, as he sat down. The mysterious man was  
staring at him smiling. It was starting to creep him out.  
  
"So, you are Fox Mulder, I've heard so much about you." LaCoix sipped at his  
glass filled with a red liquid.  
  
"Usually, in my case, that's never a good thing." Mulder replied.  
  
"I knew your father." At this Mulder's interest perked up. "Yes, it was a rather sad  
end for him but he should have known." LaCoix was testing Mulder's patience and he  
knew it. "But that, is for another time. I have some rather interesting information for you,  
now there is no aliens in this but there is quite a big government conspiracy. Have you  
ever heard of a drug named Prokisnetic, Mr. Mulder?" LaCoix asked him.  
  
"No." Scully might, if only she were here, she would be, he was going to find her  
tonight, with or without help.  
  
"Nicholas told me about what happened to your partner and I believe that she is  
still alive. The people, this man Loubar, is dealing with, would never waste good blood  
by blowing them up." Loubar read Mulder's thoughts.  
  
"Good blood?" Mulder couldn't believe what he had just heard. Were they talking  
about, what he thought they were talking about? "What about this drug, this  
Prokisnetic?"  
  
"Ah, where to start?"  
__________________________  
A Warehouse  
  
"Errrr!" Angie screamed in frustration. She had been trying as many ways she  
could think of, to get out of this room. Natalie was chopping away at a hole in the wall,  
with one of the pipes she'd taken from the wall. Scully was in the bathroom, standing on  
the counter trying to nudge a board from the ceiling.  
  
"I think the only way out of here, is through that door." Scully told them, coming  
out from the bathroom.   
  
"Well the good news is that I got through the concrete in this wall. The bad news  
is that there's solid metal on the other side." Natalie sighed, they'd been at this for over  
five hours and nothing was budging.  
  
"Do you think everyone thinks we're dead?" Angie asked, her eyes still scanning  
the room for a way out.  
  
"I'm not sure, either way, we'll have to find our own way out of here. Mulder  
probably thinks we've been abducted by aliens." Scully smiled.  
  
"So Dana, how long have you two been sleeping together?" Natalie asked bluntly.  
  
"What?" Scully looked at them in surprise then blushed, in spite of herself. "We're  
just partners. We are! Okay then, what about you and Nick or you and Rollie." She shot  
back at the other two.  
  
"That is completely different, it is. So then what about you and Rollie?" Natalie  
shot at Angie.  
  
"Rollie was practically my brother, up until, well, awhile ago but especially in the  
last few days. You know how Loubar can make himself look like anyone? Well, he did."  
Angie grew much more quieter and sadder, the three women sat down on the ground.  
"He made himself look like Rollie and it was a perfect mask, I never knew. I slept with  
Loubar because I thought he was Rollie." Angie's eyes started to tear up and Scully and  
Nat grabbed her hands. "But in part, it was a blessing because it made us realize how  
much we loved each other, so it has a happy ending or was going to."  
  
"I'm in love with Mulder." Scully admitted for the first time, to herself or anyone.  
"But he doesn't return it. He's got this crusade, to find aliens or uncover a big  
government conspiracy or I'm not even sure anymore. Every time I think we're getting  
close, something happens and..." Scully sighed, it was so frustrating not knowing what  
was going on in his head.  
"Did he tell you he doesn't love you?" Natalie asked, Scully shook her head. "Nick  
told me he loved me, then left. He didn't even leave me a chance to tell him how I feel  
and every time I bring it up he changes the subject. It's like he doesn't want to know if I  
love him because that might mean we would maybe have to act on it, which is  
impossible." Natalie told them, trying to hide the tears that stung her eyes, that were in  
all their eyes.  
  
"Plus, you know, we've got careers." Angie voiced the excuse each one of them  
had used too many times before. They all laughed.  
__________________________________  
Rollie Tyler's Loft  
  
On his computer, Rollie had blown up every spot on the photograph, trying to find  
some sort of clue, as to where Loubar was keeping Angie and the others. The more he  
searched the picture, the more he kept coming back to the same spot, Angie's face. She  
was searching the room with her eyes, he knew she was trying to find a way out. Rollie  
couldn't find any proof that this was a fake, that they really were dead. He wasn't sure if  
it was Angie he had talked to on the phone, or a recording of her voice, if only he  
had...stupid! How could he be so stupid, Rollie started frantically typing on his computer,  
until he found what he was looking for.   
  
A couple of weeks ago, Angie had installed a recorder into the phone because of  
some case they were working on with the police. The phone call was immediately stored  
into the computer and filed. Now all Rollie had to do was get through all of Angie's  
security and he'd get a tape recording of Loubar calling him. While he was waiting for his  
password to go through, his eye caught something in the picture. It looked like a bit of  
moonlight, when he looked at the blown-up version, it confirmed it. It was something that  
was so little, that someone even in the room might not have noticed.  
  
Loubar's voice broke him out of his train of thought, it was the phone  
conversation.  
  
"As much as I'd like to cause you the ultimate pain of losing your sweet Angie, my  
employer doesn't like the idea, so, I have to give her back. She and the other two lovely  
women are all yours, you just have to find them."  
  
"This is a trick. I'm not falling for your antics, Loubar." Rollie's voice was loud and  
full of hatred.  
  
"Then I guess I'll just have to keep Angela to myself. Maybe I'll dress-up like you  
again and she and I will have some fun." Loubar hung up before Rollie had a chance to  
reply.  
  
Just listening to the tape, made Rollie want to rip Loubar's throat out, but that was  
for later. Rollie ran Angie's voice, from the very beginning of the tape, through the voice  
decoder, which could tell him if it was real or not. It was Angie's voice. Rollie's heart  
jumped into his throat, he'd never been so relieved. She wasn't dead.   
_____________________________  
The Mirror Nightclub  
4:01 AM  
  
"They call themselves The Kindred. They have existed since almost the  
beginning of vampires, they believe that we, the vampires should live in the majority and  
the regular mortals as the minority. The government, especially the Americans, have  
worked with The Kindred, given them quite a lot of power in the government, to try to  
ward off their plans to take over the U.S.A. But, as they say, power corrupts and now  
that The Kindred have had a tiny bit of power, they thirst for more." LaCoix told the  
stunned men.  
  
"So you're saying that, Vampires, really do exist and they're working with the  
government but now they want more power, so they're planning on taking over the  
American government?" Mulder asked, shocked.  
  
"I knew Mr. Mulder, you had an open mind." LaCoix smiled at him.  
  
"Why just the U.S.?" Nick asked, who in all his years had never learned of this.  
  
"The other governments are practically allowing the vampires to run their  
countries, where the U.S. has been less generous. The group is also growing in size  
and has moved it's headquarters to New York, where it is trying to reach out to more  
people and more countries. They are becoming quite a large group."  
  
"What about the enforcers, they wouldn't allow this to happen, for our community  
to become public?" Nick asked.  
  
"Who are the enforcers?" Mulder asked, his attention peaked when the mention  
of government conspiracies and vampires was spoken and forgot all about his  
fascination towards aliens.  
  
"The enforcers, are vampires that make sure *no one* knows about us.  
Unfortunately, most of the enforcers are being bought and heading over towards The  
Kindred." LaCoix responded answering both their questions.  
  
"What does this have to do with us?" Nick inquired.  
  
"Their are some of us in the vampire community that, although at one point we  
did believe in their ideals, felt that they have strayed from their true goal. Those people,  
are now being killed by The Kindred because of what they know. The Kindred is killing  
them in very public manners, making sure they 'feed' before they kill them with a stake  
through the heart."  
  
"And you happen to be one of those people that have changed their minds? But  
they wouldn't be able to kill you with a stake through the heart, I know from personal  
experience." Nick said, eyeing his master.  
  
"True, I am much too old a vampire, to be killed with a simple stake through the   
heart, but..." LaCoix pulls out a small vial, full of a colourless liquid. "...with this, it is  
possible." He passed the vial to both men, who examined it.  
  
"Is this the drug you were talking about earlier? Prokisnetic?" Mulder asked.  
  
"Ah, yes, very good. It's something our good friends at the government have been  
cooking up. It's a drug for vampires." At this Nick's ears picked up. " But before you get  
excited about it being a cure for vampirism, my son..." Mulder looked at surprise at Nick.  
"...it's not. It only takes away our abilities, to fly, to be stronger than anything, our  
hearing and senses. You see Mr. Mulder, a vampire can hear when there is someone  
nearby and whither they are a vampire or not, by their heart beat. Without this, we  
wouldn't be able to sense danger, which is exactly what happened to those murdered  
vampires. The Kindred hired a, Victor Loubar, I suspect you know him, to kill off these  
threatening vampires but without them sensing him. The drug has to be consumed,  
generally through another's blood, so the drug was given to the unsuspecting mortal and  
later consumed by the vampire."  
  
Mulder was still trying to absorb all this information, when he remembered a very  
interesting point. "So that explains a lot." He told Nick, who merely gave a small smile.  
  
The two men left then, separately, Mulder suspected to seek shelter from the  
sunlight, leaving Mulder to think about his new discovery and about what he was going  
to do about the one he loved.  
__________________________________  
Rollie Tyler's Loft  
11:45 AM  
  
Rollie had been listening to the phone conversation for hours and he'd uncovered  
a boat noise in the background. After cross-referencing and using most of his new  
software, he'd been able to tell what kind of boat it was, who's boat it was and where it  
had been last night. Unfortunately there were still seven-teen warehouses in that district  
and he needed to narrow that down, preferably to one.   
  
When Mira had come over at eight that morning, Rollie pointed out the hole in the  
ceiling he'd found in the picture, to her. That was probably where they would make their  
rescue, if they could make it big enough to fit through.  
  
Mira had been on the phone since then, preparing for going in and getting Scully,  
Natalie and Angie and then finding Loubar. She was also looking into narrowing down  
the list of seven-teen warehouses. "Are you sure? Alright, thank-you." She hung up the  
phone and crossed off one of the warehouses off the list. "That brings us down to nine,  
Rol."   
"We have to do better than that." He told her, getting frustrated. Maybe if Angie  
was here, she could figure this...the phone interrupted his thoughts. "Tyler."  
  
"How are we this glorious morning?" It was Loubar, Rollie saw Mira on the phone  
and lowered his voice not wanting her to hear.  
  
"Loubar. Where are you?" Rollie asked angrily.  
  
"You still haven't figured that out? My, my Tyler, you're not doing to well these  
days. Do you want me to tell you, it'll take the fun out of it but I'm getting anxious to get  
on to my other work. Tell you what, you leave the cops out of it and only you, Mr. Mulder  
and Mr. Knight show up to...Dino's Diner at seven o'clock. There will be a message  
waiting for you there but if I even smell a cop, forty feet from there, I'll just kill off my   
guests. Don't be late." Loubar hung up.  
  
Rollie looked over at Mira who was still on the phone and hadn't heard his  
conversation, he hated to lie to her but it was his only choice. "Mira?" He asked when  
she got off the phone. "I just found out what warehouse it's at, that was the boat driver  
who honked his horn, he remembered where he rung it at and that there was only one  
warehouse that could have heard it. It's number six."  
  
"Great job Rollie! Alright I have to go in to the station, set up everything up, you  
going to be okay here?" Mira beamed, finally they'd caught a break.  
  
"Ya, I'll be fine. When do you think we'll be heading over there?" Rollie asked.  
  
"I'd say just before midnight, leaves us some surprise and Loubar will start  
sweating about no one showing up yet." Mira left.  
  
Rollie frantically started to plan and pack up everything he'd need, since he'd  
practically be doing this on his own, with the exception of Knight and Mulder. He'd have  
to sneak out of the loft without the uniforms knowing, so he set up some recordings of  
his voice and told the cops that he wasn't to be bothered until eight, by NO ONE. Then  
with two bags packed, he went out the secret back exit, by the phone booth.  
______________________________  
Dino's Diner  
7:01 PM  
  
Rollie, Mulder and Knight were sitting in a booth, their eyes glued to all the  
entrances. Three mugs of black coffee sat untouched. The diner was grungy, dirty and  
dark but busy with all sorts of different people. Drug lords, families, some off work  
firemen but no one that resembled Loubar, though he could be any one of those people.  
A waitress that looked like she hadn't slept in days came over to them.  
  
"Do you want anything to eat?" She asked, trying to be polite, even though they  
hadn't touched their coffees.  
"No thanks, I'm good." Nick told her. The other two nodded in unison. They were  
still quite calm, considering, but their patience was starting to dissipate.  
  
"Some guy left this for you, but he left in quite a hurry." The waitress handed over  
a note.  
  
"Which way did he go?" Mulder asked frantically, jumping out of his seat.  
  
"I'm sorry I don't know but he left about...ten minutes ago, sorry." She left.  
  
Rollie picked up the note, nodding at the address, he knew where it was. They  
headed out quickly to Mulder's car, throwing a few dollars on the table as they left and  
smiled at the waitress.  
_________________________   
Rollie Tyler's Loft  
7:05 PM  
  
"I don't care what he said, I'm going in. I'll bet you he's not even in there  
anymore." Mira slammed past the uniformed police standing in front of Rollie's door.  
When she went in, with Peter following close behind, she found her suspicions  
confirmed, Rollie was no where to be found. "Shit!" Mira yelled. "He's gone after Loubar  
himself." Mira got on the phone to put an APB out for Rollie. Peter wondered over to the  
computer.  
  
"What's this?" He asked Mira when she hung up.   
  
"It's something Rollie was working on this morning. I think it records all the phone  
conversations that come into the loft. Wait, a second." Mira started to click on the  
computer. "Found it! And they say computers are hard." Mira played the phone  
conversation between Rollie and Loubar, earlier that day.   
  
"Let's get over Dino's Diner, see if we can find anything there." Peter suggested.  
Mira nodded. "And it's probably a good idea, if we keep this quiet."  
  
When they left, they told the guards outside that Rollie was fine but not to let  
anyone in.   
  
At Dino's Diner, Rollie, was no where to be found, neither were Mulder or Nick,  
who Peter and Mira now suspected were with Rollie. They talked to the waitress who  
had served them but she could only tell them that she gave them a note, that she hadn't  
read, and she hadn't seen which way they'd gone. One of the fire fighters, who  
recognized Mira and Peter from the two previous fires he'd help put out, came over. He  
said he'd seen the three men leave and drive off towards the north.  
  
Though they didn't have much to go on and since Mira had retracted the APB out  
on Rollie, they were going on instinct. Lucky for them, they had Peter.  
__________________________  
Warehouse on 51 st.  
7:30 PM   
Mulder, Rollie and Nick crouched beside a dumpster, two blocks away from the  
warehouse. As suspected, security cameras viewed almost every angle of the premise,  
the only way to get to the roof, where the hole to the room was, was a metal ladder that  
was attached to the building and had a camera watching it. The warehouse was about  
five stories high, with few windows that were heavily boarded up. There was no way of  
telling how many sensors Loubar had set up on the ground and the roof.  
  
The note they had received at the restaurant gave the address and said "Come  
on in." Loubar had the power but there was no way Mulder, Nick and Rollie were just  
going to waltz on in the front door. And make it back out alive.  
  
Nick was weighing his options, he could easily fly over and get on the roof but if  
Loubar had set up sensors, it would be useless. Since Loubar was working with  
vampires and he most likely knew that Nick was a vampire he was probably prepared for  
everything. Suddenly Nick could hear an extra heartbeat, he turned just in time to have  
a needle stabbed in his arm. He fell to the ground unconscious, with Mulder and Rollie  
following soon after.  
____________________________________   
  
"Nick? Nick, wake up, are you okay?" Natalie asked, as she crouched sown  
beside where he was lying down.   
  
They were in a small room, with concrete walls and only a bed and a small  
adjoining bathroom. Nick was awaking from unconsciousness in the bed.  
  
"What hap..." Nick tried to ask but was interrupted by the sharp pain shooting  
through his head.  
  
"I think they knocked you out with some kind of drug, you had a small needle  
wound in your arm. They took me out of the other cell and brought me in here, where  
you were, about an hour ago. I didn't think there was anything that could knock you out."  
  
"The Kindred, they would have something like that." Nick answered, trying to sit  
up.  
  
"The what, Nick lie back down." Natalie forced him to lie down, he propped  
himself up on his elbows.  
  
"Natalie, I thought you were dead." He raised his hand to her face.  
  
"Nick, I think whatever they gave you, has made you slightly dillusiona..." Natalie  
was interrupted by Nick's lips.  
  
His hands framed her face, as his lips touched hers ever so softly and held there.  
Natalie was too shocked to respond but when she realized what was happening she  
wrapped her arms around him, pressing her hands into his back, forcing him closer. She  
opened her mouth and he explored it with need and love. Both of their tongues searched  
each others mouths, as their passion mounted.  
  
Sparks flew through Natalie, as she had never felt before. Parts of her body  
reacted, that she didn't even know could respond. Her heart rate speed up, her  
temperature rose several hundred degrees. She had never thought kissing someone  
could be this...there were no words that could possibly explain it. She ran her hand  
through his hair, pulling him closer to her, pressing herself to him.  
  
No matter how long Nick had been alive, he had never experienced something  
like this, he could never have even perceived of something like this. It shook him to his  
very core, the love, the need, the passion he felt for Natalie. They'd kissed before but  
there was something different this time, it was more powerful, like they had finally  
succumbed to the feelings they felt for each other.   
  
Just as suddenly as they'd joined together, they split apart, breathing heavily,  
looking at the floor. Neither daring to speak first, afraid that the other thought that it had  
been a mistake, a regret. Nick made the first move, he brushed his hand across  
Natalie's cheek and turned her face to his.  
  
"Is this...I mean, I understand that you don't...but..." Nick wrestled with the words.  
"...do you love me?" He asked in a voice so innocent, it could have been a five-year old  
boy's.  
  
Natalie smiled, she'd waited for so long to tell him. "I've never loved anyone as  
much as I love you, Nick."   
  
They kissed again and when they broke apart they were grinning broadly. Natalie  
sat a on the bed beside him and took his hand in her's.  
  
"I think we need to talk then." Nick told her, still smiling. "There are some things  
that we CAN'T do, there's...goddamitt, I can't do this to you, I'm sorry." Nick stood up  
and walked over to a corner.  
  
"I don't get a choice in this? Is that it, you say we can't be together and that's it?"  
Natalie said angrily walking over to where Nick was. "Nick, I'm not afraid of being with  
you, I can..."  
  
Nick turned around to face her, "LaCoix will kill you, he said if I ever fell in love,  
he'd kill that person. Or if he doesn't kill you, I will, by accident but I'm not going to play  
Russian Roulette with your life. I should never have told you that I love you and I never  
should have kissed you. Unless you can think of something, there's no way we can be  
together."  
Natalie knew it was true, which is why it hurt so much. She turned away from him  
and walked away, she wouldn't cry in front of him. She walked into the bathroom with  
her head held high but once the door closed she let emotions run free.   
  
On the other side of the door, Nick sunk down to the floor and buried his head in  
his hands.  
___________________________________   
  
  
"So are they all here?" The man in the dark trench coat asked.  
  
"Yeah, the one's you asked for are here." Loubar responded.  
  
They were not alone, there were four others in the room, silently standing behind  
their master, staring intimidatedly at Loubar, who was unmoved.  
  
"Let's give them a few hours, we have some other business to take care of first.  
We'll be back." With that the man and his followers flew out of sight, leaving Loubar in  
the warehouse.  
  
He moved over to his laptop computer, waiting to see if the funds were being  
transferred into his account. He was going to be receiving a lot of money for this job but  
the money was only a small pleasure, the revenge he would reap on Tyler was the  
largest pleasure.  
_______________________________  
  
  
Rollie woke up slowly, with a pounding headache, he tried to look around him but  
his vision was still blurry. When he tried to sit up, he was overtaken by a strong pain in  
his head. He let out a low cry and felt an arm slip around the back of his neck, lifting his  
head up and putting it on their lap. When the pain ceased, Rollie looked up into a face,  
Angie's.  
  
"Ang...Angie?!" He choked. Despite the pain he sat up and grabbed her by the  
shoulders, staring into her eyes, as if trying to figure out if it was really her.  
  
"Hi, Rol. I was wondering when you were going to get he-." She was cut off, when  
he pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly.  
  
"I thought you were dead. The van blew up and I thought you were in it, I thought  
I would never see you again."   
  
He looked into her eyes again, he caressed her cheek with his thumb. Then he  
moved down to trace her mouth, slowly, looking into her eyes, he brought his lips to  
hers. Pressing against them ever so lightly, then growing with passion as she opened  
her mouth to him. A kiss that had started off light and innocent was now plunging into  
the depths of eroticism and power, neither had ever felt before. His lips separated from  
hers, moving down to her neck. She let out a sigh as he nipped at her earlobe, running  
her hands through his hair. He slowly pulled himself away from her neck, remembering  
his sanity.  
  
"Is this, okay?" Rollie asked her nervously, remembering Loubar and what he had  
done to her.  
  
Angie grabbed Rollie's hand, "Yes, it's very okay." She smiled shyly at him. He  
was nothing like what Loubar was like. When Rollie kissed her she knew it was him and  
not Loubar, or anyone else, it felt...right. To answer his question even further, she  
kissed him and he returned the kiss with equal passion.  
__________________________________  
Corner of 47th and Potter  
8:37 PM  
  
Mira was leaning on the car, watching Peter, who for some reason had stopped  
the car, got out and started looking around. She wasn't about to question him, for he  
had this look on his face, one that told you not to doubt him. If he was on to something,  
it would be the first lead in awhile. Mira had cancelled the team, who had been ready to  
storm a warehouse, which no one knew was the right one or not. Her captain had asked  
for an explanation and she had said that the source was unreliable and they were  
working on another lead. Which was half true.  
  
Peter was deep in his own thoughts, as he walked around a dumpster for the  
third time. He'd felt a strong sense from it but he couldn't figure out what it was, if Caine  
was here, he would be able to but Peter still hadn't even able to find him, which was  
very concerning. Although his father had a habit of leaving for long lengths of time  
without telling anyone, Peter had this strong feeling something was wrong. He'd learned  
a long time ago to trust your feelings...trust your feelings, that's what it was! He turned  
around and started climbing the fire escape to the roof.  
  
"Peter? What the hell?" Mira yelled, reluctantly following him up the stairs.  
  
When he finally reached the top, he was greeted by an enormous fist, meeting  
the side of his face, knocking him sideways and down. When he opened his eyes again  
he was face to face with a man, with dark eyes and even darker hair. The man stepped  
away and walked over to the fire escape where Mira was coming up and offered a hand  
to her. Instead she pulled out a gun.  
  
"Freeze, hands in the air!" She screamed at the Spaniard, who raised his hands  
up, obediently.  
  
Peter ran a hand across his face as he stood up, it would leave a nice bruise. He  
looked over to where the man was standing, he was fairly tall and young with long black  
hair and...Peter finally figured out what it was he was sensing. "Mira, do me a favour and  
run down to the car a grab my cell, let's not call this one in just yet."   
  
Mira looked at him with confusion, then at the man, then back at Peter. She  
signed and obliged, leaving Peter and the Spaniard alone on the rooftop.   
  
"So I'm guessing there's really no use for those handcuffs? If you want to leave I  
suppose I wouldn't be able to stop you, right?" Peter asked him, taking the handcuffs off.  
  
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. And sorry about the punch, I  
thought you were someone else." The man replied, trying to read Peter's mind.  
  
"Who are you looking for? What's your name?" Peter asked him.  
  
"If I say none of your business, I suppose you might arrest me, right. You guys  
are cops?" Peter nodded. "Well, you might know who I'm trying to find then, her name's  
Tracey Vetter." Nick Knight's partner, Peter thought to himself.  
  
"Why are you looking for her?" Peter asked suspiciously.  
  
"She's a friend of mine, she came here with a her partner Nick Knight and a  
doctor, Natalie Lambert. They're here to help out with a case, trying to locate Victor  
Loubar. Anything ringing a bell? You can call her and ask her, my name's Vachon."  
  
Peter took the phone that Mira handed to him as she came back up the steps.  
She gave Peter a strange look when she saw that the man, named Vachon, was  
handcuffless. Peter called Detective Vetter and she did know a Vachon. She promised  
to meet them there in a fifteen minutes. The three of them descended the fire escape,  
just as Mira was out of earshot, Peter asked Vachon, "So are you a good vampire or a  
bad one?" Vachon looked at Peter in surprise and watched as he walked calmly over to  
Mira.  
_________________________________  
Warehouse on 51st  
  
Mulder reached his hand up to his head, "That must have been one hell of a  
party," he had a huge headache but he was still able to notice that he wasn't at home or  
in a hotel. "Oh, oh." Then he remembered the warehouse, the needle and Scully! He  
needed to find Scully. He swung legs over to the side of the bed and looked around.  
Cement walls, a large metal door and two sunlight's about twenty feet above. There was  
another door that was also closed but it was made just of wood. Where had he seen this  
before? Then he remembered the photograph Loubar had sent them of Scully and the  
others, this was the exact same.   
  
He stood, ignoring the pounding of his head and walked over to the wood door,  
just as he was about to try and open it, it swung open, hitting him in the head. He fell to  
the ground, from the force of the door.  
  
"Sorry, I didn't think you were awake yet." A voice told him, it was very familiar.  
Mulder very slowly opened his eyes, not wanting to be wrong. He was right though it  
was her.  
  
"Scully!" He practically yelled, he was on his feet in seconds, throwing his arms  
around her. His weight caused her to fall back onto the floor, she landed heavily, with  
him on top of her.  
  
"Hi, to you too, Mulder." She tried to get out from under him but he wasn't  
moving. She'd never seen him so relieved, she guessed that he had thought she was  
dead.  
  
"I thought I lost you but here you are." Mulder grinned. He knew this position was  
making Scully uncomfortable but he wasn't going to budge. He had made himself a  
promise, earlier that day, that if Scully was alive, he wasn't going to waste any more time  
hiding his feelings.  
  
"Yes, here I am Mulder. You wanna move?" Scully was growing way too  
comfortable with this position and if he didn't move soon, she might do something she'd  
regret later.  
  
"Nope." He was still grinning like an idiot. There was a look in her eye, he didn't  
recognize it, which made him nervous. He stood up, offering her a hand, which of  
course, she didn't take. Maybe right now wasn't the time to tell her. "So, this is where  
Loubar has been keeping you?"  
  
"Ya, in a different room though, no bed and no skylights. They brought me in here  
a while ago, which is where I found you, unconscious. I think someone stabbed you with  
a needle, which knocked you out. I guess they took your gun."  
  
Mulder checked, it was gone and so were the clothes he came in. The clothes he  
was wearing were his but they weren't the ones he'd been wearing when he came to the  
warehouse. The same with Scully, she wasn't wearing the clothes he'd last seen her in  
but she was wearing her own clothes. To answer his unspoken question, Scully simply  
shrugged and shook her head.  
  
Mulder was already looking for a way out, he glanced at the bed, then up at the  
skylights.   
  
Scully shook her head and told him, "I already thought of that but the bed isn't  
long enough to reach there. And even if it did, those skylights aren't made of glass, I  
tried throwing some things at it, it's not going to break."  
  
Mulder was already moving the bed, "Well we can at least try."  
  
"Mulder, it's not...Mulder come here." Scully was staring at the floor where the  
bed had been. Mulder walked over and saw what Scully was staring at. It was a small  
hatch door, with a string attached to it, Mulder pulled on it and it opened slowly,  
revealing a dark stairwell. Mulder and Scully looked at each other  
  
"Down the rabbit hole." Mulder said and before she could object Mulder was  
going down. Scully followed and the hatch closed behind her. They both tried to push  
the hatch back open but it wasn't moving.  
  
At the bottom of the stairwell was a long corridor, lit dimly with candles. There  
were hard wood floors and the walls looked recently painted. It looked more like a  
hallway in someone's house, rather than the basement of a warehouse. There were no  
doorways or other hallways meeting this one.  
  
"I starting to think this is a trap," Mulder said, itching for his gun.  
  
"What tipped you off," Scully asked sarcastically. She wished they'd stayed up in  
the room above. Well, since she was wishing, she wished Mulder would get his head out  
of his ass and realize that his playful flirtation with her, that didn't mean anything to him,  
meant a lot to her. 'Men!' she almost yelled out loud, then she remembered that they  
were probably in a lot of danger here. Here they were, probably being set up about to be  
killed and she was wondering why Mulder didn't love her, what a girl thing to do. Well,  
maybe she should be allowed to make such indulgences sometimes, she was a girl,  
though she doubted Mulder noticed that.   
  
Mulder was wrapped up in his own thoughts, oblivious to the danger they were in.  
He knew he needed to tell her, she'd of course kill him but still, if he didn't tell her, he'd  
never be able to concentrate again. She was always on his mind! Alright, he'd tell her  
when they got out of here. But what if they never made it out of here, he wanted her to  
know, for some strange reason. What was he supposed to do, tell her right now? Well  
there was no time like the present right?  
  
"Mulder, what are we doing?" Scully asked, her question had a double-meaning  
but she doubted Mulder picked up on that.  
  
"I not sure." His answer had a double-meaning but he was sure Scully wasn't  
asking him *that* question. He stopped and turned to look at her, standing in the  
candlelight, looking around, completely unaware of the emotions he felt for her. "What  
do you think we should do?"  
  
"I don't know, what do you think, keep going with this?"  
  
"It's not going anywhere, we're not benefitting from it." Mulder replied.   
  
"Well, what else could we do?"  
  
"Change things." Mulder looked at her intensely.   
  
"Is that possible?" Scully stared back at him with her blue eyes. Mulder moved  
even closer to her, until she could feel his breath on her skin.  
  
"Anything's possible, if that's what you want." Mulder asked nervously  
  
"That's what I want, is that what you want?" Scully reflected his question  
anxiously.  
  
Mulder his hand to her cheek, stroking it, then he picked her arms up and  
wrapped them around his neck. Her brought his hands up between her arms and framed  
her face with his hands, gently outlining her lips, with his thumbs. Slowly, as if relishing  
in every moment, he brought his lips to hers. He held his lips there for several seconds,  
then forced her mouth open with his tongue. She opened her mouth eagerly, pressing  
her own tongue into his mouth. His hands dropped from her face and wrapped around  
her back, pressing her even closer to him.  
  
She pressed her body against him, running her hands through his dark hair,  
every muscle in her body relaxing against him. His lips left her mouth and travelled to  
her chin, where he left a tiny kiss on every inch of her chin, then moving down to her  
neck. He looked up into her eyes for permission before he started unbuttoning her  
blouse, allowing him free access to her neck and shoulders. She tugged at his T-shirt,  
until he helped her pull it off. She ran her hands down his chest, then back up to around  
his neck, pulling him into a passionate kiss.  
  
He lowered them both to the floor, with her underneath him. "Are you sure?" he  
asked her with concern and love.  
  
"Absolutely," she smiled up at him.  
_______________________________________   
  
"Why don't you just fly up there and break the window and get us out of here?"  
Natalie asked Nick unpatiently.  
  
"Thank you, I hadn't thought of that." Nick retorted sarcastically. "But I can't."  
  
"What do you mean you can't?"  
  
Nick jumped up and down, "See I'm not flying and don't ask me to go break down  
the door because I can't do that either," Nick said irritably.  
  
Natalie walked toward Nick, trying not to smile, "You mean you've lost all the  
powers you have because you're a vampire?"  
  
"Yes, but I already told you about Prokisnetic and what it does. It makes a  
vampire lose his strength, flying ability, hearing...wait..." Nick smiled  
"You can hear me!" Natalie exclaimed as she ran up to Nick. "Try to, you know,  
become a vampire."  
  
Nick bent his head down, thinking of thoughts that would bring out the vampire in  
him, anger, passion, hunger. When he raised his head again, he was the same. "I can't.  
And you know another thing, I'm hungry, but not for blood. I could actually eat a  
hamburger!" Nick hugged Natalie.  
  
"Okay, we can't jump to conclusions, it's probably the drug that knocked you out  
and we don't know how long it will last. When we get out of here, I'll run some tests  
and..." She couldn't stand it any longer, this was something he had been looking for  
since he became a vampire and it was something she had wanted for him to be since  
she met him...mortal. She cupped his face with her hands and kissed him.  
  
When they parted they were both smiling, the kiss had nothing to do with the love  
they felt for each other, it was a celebration of the cure they may have, that they had  
been looking for.  
  
"Let's get out of here." Nick smiled at Natalie.  
  
They parted, looking around the room for a solution to this problem, an escape.  
After several minutes both glanced at the bed, then at each other and in a sudden move  
were looking under the bed, where they saw it. Pushing away the bed, they stood above  
the hatch, staring at it.  
  
"Well, its better than sitting around here. Ready to test that mortality of yours?"  
Natalie asked pulling open the hatch and going down without waiting for a response.  
_________________________________  
Tracey Vetter's Car  
  
"What the hell are you doing here?" Tracey asked angrily.  
  
"Protecting you...and other stuff." Vachon added when he saw the Tracey's  
expression.  
  
"I may be a woman and I may be blonde but I DON"T NEED PROTECTION!"  
  
"Well, you don't know what you're getting yourself into." Vachon continued to  
explain about The Kindred and what their plans were.  
  
"Okay, so you think Victor Loubar is, like their hit man?" She asked him, once she  
had been able to wrap her brain around what he had just told her.  
  
"Well for lack of a better word, yes. Listen I'm going to go check out these  
warehouses and I'll come find you when I find it. Don't go into any without me." Vachon  
warned.  
"Fine. So should I slow down or are you just going to..." The car door slammed  
shut before Tracey even realised it had opened, Vachon was gone.  
  
Ahead of her in Mira's car, they saw a figure fly in front of them.  
  
"Did you see that?" Mira asked Peter, peering out her window.  
  
Peter, knowing full well, what and who it was, shrugged, "I didn't see anything."   
  
Mira leaned back against her seat, "Must have been a big bird or something."  
  
"Big bird, " Peter confirmed.  
  
They were driving towards the waterfront, where the warehouse was supposed to  
be. The only problem was, which one. There were quite a few and in the dark, all looked  
relatively the same. They were going to start at the end and make their way back and  
hoped that fate or God or something intervened and helped them out. It was a long shot  
but it was all they had.   
________________________________  
  
  
"So do think the others found this yet?" Angie asked Rollie, who was walking  
ahead of her, down the darkened hallway, they found after going down the hatch under  
their bed.  
  
"Probably but the big question is, what is this? We have to assume Loubar did  
this on purpose and that there's some reason he wants us to go down here. And it's  
probably not so we can esca...do you see that?" Rollie pointed up the hallway.  
  
Angie looked around him to see two hallways connecting to this one, they ran  
towards it and both collided with two other people.  
  
"Oh great, more hallways." Mulder said, rubbing his head, where he'd run into  
Rollie's with. "So I suppose you guys decided to look for monsters under the bed too."  
  
"Yeah, though I was starting to..." Rollie stopped mid-sentence and they all  
turned toward the other connecting hallway, where voices were coming from.  
  
"I'm just saying th-AHHHH!" Natalie screamed in surprise when she came around  
the corner.  
  
"Well now that we're all here, I suppose we can just continue down this hallway."  
Scully took charge, already walking down it. Nick shrugged and followed her, the others  
did too, with Mulder in the back.  
  
After walking for a while and all making assumptions on where this led, they  
passed a door. No amount of pushing or banging, opened it and they eventually  
continued on. It was Mulder who first felt the breeze behind him. When he turned, a man  
covered in shadows stood before him.  
  
"Guys...turn around." Mulder called out. They all turned.  
  
The man walked into the light as they others came closer. Nick walked right over  
to him.  
  
"Vachon."   
  
"Nick."  
  
"Oh my God, did we leave anyone at home." Natalie remarked, throwing her  
hands up in the air.  
  
"Who is this?" Scully asked.  
  
"My name's Vachon, I'm here to get you out of here but we have to go now."  
Vachon turned and walked towards where they had just come from. They all hurried  
towards the door they had tried to open before, which now was pulled from it's hinges.  
They followed the stairs inside the doorway which led to outside. Mira and Tracey's cars  
were waiting for them. Vachon, Nick, Natalie and Mulder pilled into Mira's car with Peter  
and Scully, Angie and Rollie, got into Tracey's car with Mira and her. The cars quickly  
pulled away.   
  
Tracey's car was speeding away when Peter slammed on the breaks on the car  
he was driving and threw it into reverse. Before anyone could ask any questions, he  
jumped out and started running back towards the warehouse. The others sat still in the  
car, ready to leave without him, when they saw him carrying what looked like a man.  
Mulder and Nick ran over to help him, while Vachon pulled into the drivers seat.  
  
They put the man in the car with and got in it themselves, as Vachon pulled  
away.  
  
"Who is that?" Mulder asked Peter.  
  
"It's my father." Peter replied leaning over him, while Natalie looked him over.  
  
"We need to get him to a hospital, right now." Natalie looked at Peter and Mulder  
then at Nick, who nodded his head. "He's been bitten."  
_________________________________  
Clark Hospital  
February 12, 1:04 AM  
  
  
He hated this, the endless waiting, the starched walls, that smell that was too  
clean, as if trying to hide something. It had been four hours and there was still no  
change and a dimming hope that his father would ever make it out of here, alive. Peter  
pushed his fingertips to his eyes, he hadn't slept in days and there was no way he could  
sleep now. He remembered back, to another time his father was in the hospital. It was  
where Peter had found him, after thinking his father had been dead for fifteen years,  
he'd found him, alive. He wouldn't be able to stand losing him, again.  
  
Outside, in the hallway, Mulder sat, trying not to stare at Scully. All he could think  
of was what it felt like to make love to her, it was truly unexplainable. He couldn't believe  
what they'd done, what he'd done, it was all his fault, no matter how good it had felt and  
how much he wanted it again, it had been a mistake. He could tell that, whenever he  
looked in her eyes. The regret, was very clear in her eyes, they had crossed the line and  
she blamed him. He would never be able to forgive himself for what he had done but he  
prayed to God that Scully would.  
  
He hated her, no Mulder would never hate her, no matter what but still, she  
couldn't get that look out of her mind. The look he'd given her when they got to the  
hospital, he regretted sleeping her, she saw it in that look. What on earth had made her  
think he could actually find her attractive, let alone fall in love with her. They had done  
the one thing Scully had promised herself she'd never do and now they would both pay.  
  
Across from them, Natalie argued with a man with the hospital, trying to get the  
use of medical equipment, which she was having some trouble getting. Since she was  
not American and she didn't want to attract too much attention, they wouldn't let her  
have any. Scully interrupted them.  
  
"I'm Dana Scully with the FBI, it's of national security, that you let Dr. Lambert and  
I, use any equipment we need." She told the man, flashing her badge, Mulder and Nick  
stood up behind them.  
  
The man agreed and let them into an empty lab, promising not to bother them.  
  
"Alright, what's going on." Scully grilled Natalie, who was pulling out a syringe and  
other materials.  
  
"This has to do with Nick," Mulder suggested.  
  
"He knows, though I'm surprised he didn't figure it out on his own." Nick stated.  
  
"Yeah, well I've been a little distracted," Mulder looked at Scully, then instantly  
regretted opening his mouth.  
  
"Whatever they injected into Nick to knock him, has had some, interesting  
effects." Natalie told Scully, knowing full well she'd never believe her if she told Scully  
Nick was a vampire.  
"Would that have anything to do with the fact that ever since we got out of the  
warehouse, I haven't seen you stop eating?" Mulder asked Nick, who was holding a  
chocolate bar.  
  
"I'm hungry." Nick said innocently, pulling up his sleeve, allowing Natalie to stab  
him with the needle and take some blood.  
  
"Yeah, I guess you get pretty hungry after a thousand years." Mulder joked.  
  
"Eight-hundred actually."  
  
Scully stood, standing in absolute confusion, "What?"  
  
"Nick's a vampire." Mulder told her.  
  
"Mulder...he is not, vampires do not exist." She told him, slowly, as if speaking to  
a child.  
  
"Well, she may be right about one part. Remember when I tested your blood  
before? Well, whatever I found, whatever makes you a vampire, isn't in your blood  
stream anymore. Your blood looks perfectly normal to me." Natalie revealed to Nick.  
"Now I still have to run some tests but...it looks like we may have done it!" Nick scooped  
her up in his arms and kissed her.  
  
Mulder and Scully shifted, uncomfortably, then looked up at each other.   
  
"I was right," he mouthed, smiling.  
  
Scully smiled herself, it was hard to resist that smile of his. Not wanting to intrude  
on their, obviously special moment, Mulder and Scully left to check on Peter and his  
father.  
____________________________  
11:49 AM  
  
She'd performed every test she could think of and they all came out the same,  
Nick was mortal. Scully had even confirmed this, adding that he had always been one in  
the first place, as there were no such thing as vampires. They had been trying to figure  
out what it was that they had injected into him but there were no traces left in his blood.   
  
Nick and Vachon had left before the sunrise, Natalie hadn't wanted to take any  
chances with Nick. Especially if this wore off.  
  
"I could guess that it will ware off in a few hours, if it hasn't already but then again  
it could last forever." Scully speculated, still not entirely convinced he was a vampire, or  
had been.  
  
"So, how did you spend your time alone with Mulder?" Natalie inquired.  
  
Scully nearly dropped a beaker she was carrying, then cleared her throat, trying  
to calm her heart beat down. "Well...um, we were trying to find a way of out, of course  
and when we found the hallway, we..."  
  
"Oh my God! Congratulations, that's really wonderful, I'm really happy for you."  
Natalie smiled at her old friend.  
  
"I, um, I don't think he wanted it, I think he regrets it, actually I'm fairly sure he  
does. " Scully grew serious, she'd never talked to anyone about this kind of stuff.  
  
"Dana, did you talk to him?"  
  
"No, we just sort of...got up and continued walking down the hallway. I wanted to  
talk to him, I...I liked it, hell, I loved it but I can understand why he wouldn't want...me."  
Scully looked away, not wanting to sound weak.  
  
Natalie walked over to her, "Go talk to him, don't argue with me, just go."   
  
Scully reluctantly left to find Mulder, Natalie was right, she did need to talk to  
Mulder but she didn't want to be the one to bring it up. When she found him, he stood up  
quickly and grabbed her hand, pulling her to the elevator.  
  
"Mulder, where are you taking me?"  
  
"I've such a jerk, you have just been kidnapped and here I am, letting you try to  
prove the existence of vampires." He pressed the button to take them down to the  
garage.  
  
"You LET me? Mulder you're not responsible for what I do or do not do."  
  
"We're going back to the hotel." He pulled her out of the hotel towards their car,  
he'd picked up earlier. "You need some sleep."  
  
"Mulder may I remind you that Victor Loubar is still at large and this, delusional  
group The Kindreds, are getting ready to take over the United States." Mulder forced her  
into the car and drove out of the hospital lot.  
  
"I'm well aware of that and I even know where their headquarters is but right now  
is not the time."  
  
"Right now is when we should be going, since these people think they're  
vampires they probably sleep during the day so-"  
  
"But they don't sleep at their headquarters. The way that, that guy Vachon found  
us was because he sensed about fifty vampires underneath that warehouse. That's  
where that hallway was going to lead, right into their awaiting...fangs."  
  
"Lemme guess, Vachon is a vampire too." Scully said. Mulder nodded.  
  
Scully gave up there was no use in arguing with Mulder and this was defiantly not  
the time to talk about earlier.   
_______________________________  
  
Peter was asleep in the chair, when he felt a hand brush across his. He  
awakened with a start, to find his father smiling at him.  
  
"Pop, sorry Dad." He stood up to stand beside the hospital bed, where his father  
was lying. "Are you okay, do you need anything?"  
  
"No, my son, I am fine but I need to leave here, there is great danger." Caine  
started to get out of the bed but Peter forced him back down.  
  
"Well you're not going to fix that, not right now anyway. You just suffered massive  
blood loss, you're going to stay right here in this bed." Peter declared.  
  
"There is an evil force that wishes to take over this country, I must stop them."   
  
"The Kindred, right, I know all about them. Vampires that want to take over  
America, I know. And I'm going to do my damnedest to stop them."  
  
"You do not understand their power, if they succeed in their mission, they will not  
stop until they have all of the world under their control. We have only this one night, for  
they will put their plan into action, tonight." Caine revealed to Peter.  
  
"You were there with them? That's where you've been, how you got bit?"  
  
"I had been led to this place, to this city to help a friend but what I did not realize,  
was the malevolent force that threatened his life."  
  
"How are they going to do it, take over an entire country?" Peter asked.  
  
"It is a plan that will result in many deaths, including my own and yours and those  
of your friends."  
____________________________________  
Rollie Tyler's Loft  
  
"Alright, I stumped." Angie confessed.  
  
"I have to admit that I'm a little distracted too." Rollie pulled her over onto his lap  
were he was sitting in front of his computer.  
"Well, I can see why, with me being here and everything. What did you do without  
me?" Angie asked him playfully.  
  
"Walked around in circles, pretending to be an airplane."   
  
Rollie stared into her eyes, he wanted to make love to her so badly. He almost  
had, when they were at the warehouse but they'd stopped, it wasn't the right place or  
time. They'd both agreed that they wanted to take it slow, they would date first. As soon  
as this was all over they would do that, go on a date. The idea seemed almost  
ridiculous, this was Angie, he'd known her since she was a little girl, it seemed so unreal.  
But in truth, it was what he had wanted from the beginning, it just took a very weird and  
painful experience to realize it. He'd one day have to thank Loubar for this, if Rollie didn't  
kill him first.  
  
"So back down to business, " Angie crawled off his lap, "What are we going to do  
about Loubar?"  
  
"We could...I, we...I have no bloody idea." Rollie stood up in frustration and  
started pacing. "I so tired of chasing him around, just waiting for him to strike and we  
never catch him, we never will."  
  
"Rollie, we can't think like that, if we give up, he wins."   
  
"It's useless, he won't stop until he kills me and he'll hurt you in the process. We  
misewell just give up." Rollie stared at Angie, slowly growing angry. "No, no, you know  
what, he's not going to win, we're going to get him." Rollie reached up to cup her face,  
"I'll die before I let him kill you."  
  
"That's what I'm afraid of."  
____________________________________  
Chandler Hotel  
  
Mulder followed Scully into her bedroom and shut the door behind them.  
  
"Are you here to tuck me in?" Scully asked impatiently.  
  
"If memory serves me right, you don't seem to go to bed when you should."  
Mulder closed the blinds.  
  
"Look who's talking. Mulder, when was the last time you got any sleep?"  
  
"If you go to sleep, I'll go to sleep." He moved over to stand near her.  
  
"Is there anything else?" Scully knew it was the perfect time for them to talk but  
she just couldn't form the words.  
  
"Scully, sit down." She obeyed and he sat down close to her, on the bed. "I think  
that, um, we need to talk." He could barely make out the words, with the way she was  
staring at him. She looked like she was scared of him.  
  
Her face softened, "I know. I'm sorry, I never should have acted that way."  
  
"No, it was me that should have never acted that way. I took advantage of you  
Scully, I'm so sorry. I know that you don't feel the same way about me but I was hoping  
we could move on."  
  
Scully was crushed by his words, any hope she had for Mulder loving her, were  
gone. She stood up, unable to be near him. "I understand, we can just go back to being  
partners, friends at the most."  
  
Mulder stood up and took her hand, "No that's not what I meant," he placed his  
hand on her face, "I don't want to be just friends, I've never wanted that."  
  
"What do you mean?" Scully asked, confused.  
  
"I mean, I love you, Scully."  
  
She smiled, "I love you too, Mulder."  
  
He brushed the back of his hand across her cheek, she ran hers up his chest and  
wrapped them around his neck. He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her closer.  
leaning his head forwards, to rest his forehead on hers. He kissed her nose, softly, then  
both her cheeks and slowly moved down to her lips, with a deep and passionate kiss.  
They stood there for a long time, revealing to each other how much they loved the other  
but not with words, only with their bodies.  
________________________________  
  
  
Nick stood in front of the closed, hotel window, he wanted to open it, to make the  
final test. If he could go outside, in the sunlight, he would truly be cured, from this  
disease that had plagued him, for over eight-hundred years. If he was cured, he and  
Natalie could be together, even though it wouldn't be forever, it wouldn't matter. He  
didn't want to live forever, if he could be with Natalie, even for an hour.  
  
"Step away from the window," Natalie came into the room.  
  
"This is the final test, I have to take it." Nick told her.  
  
"Yeah, well, not without me. Somebodies gotta treat the burns, if this doesn't  
work."  
  
"Ye of little faith."  
They stared intensely at each other, before Nick pulled the blinds open. The  
sunlight hit and instead of the usual burning of flesh, nothing happened. Nick looked at  
Natalie, then ran towards the door, Natalie following. After what seemed like an  
incredibly long elevator ride, they ran outside, receiving some strange looks from  
strangers. Once outside, Nick stood for several minutes staring up at the sky, when he  
turned to Natalie, she leapt into his arms. They kissed, for the first time they allowed  
themselves the pleasure of it, not worrying about the consequences.  
  
On the way back up to their room, Natalie told Nick what she'd found. "When I  
autopsied the dead vampires, I did find the Prokisnetic, you'd never find it if you weren't  
looking for it. When I tested your blood for it, I didn't find any, so whatever they gave you  
isn't Prokisnetic."  
  
"Well, we sort of knew that, since Prokisnetic makes you deaf and doesn't make  
you mortal or allow you to go out in sunlight. Could it be some form of it?"  
  
"I don't know, I can't find anything abnormal in your blood, I can't isolate anything,  
let alone reproduce it." Natalie told him sadly.  
  
"Well," he said taking her into his arms, "then let's make the most of it."  
_____________________________________   
Clark Hospital  
  
Mira, Peter and Tracey stood around a table in Caine's hospital room, a rather  
large blueprint of the warehouse sat on it. They were trying to figure out a plan as to  
how they would get into the basement. They had given Mira a less paranormal  
explanation, simply saying there was a group called the Kindred and they were trying to  
take over America. Of course she didn't believe that one group of fifty men and women  
could take over an entire country in one night but it was her duty to stop their plans, no  
matter how delusional they were.  
  
"There is only one way in," Caine informed them.  
  
"Well then we'll just have to go in undercover," Mira declared.  
  
"They're going to know we're not-it's not exactly that simple," Peter remembered  
that Mira didn't know about vampires, which meant she also didn't know that vampires  
could tell who was and who wasn't a vampire. "We just have to find another way in."  
  
"There is one way but it is almost impossible," Caine spoke up, "there is an  
entrance from which one must endure great physical risk."  
  
"That's right," Peter flipped through some blue prints, finding the one he wanted  
and slamming down on the table, "there's a storm drain that comes out into the water  
and it goes right through the basement of the warehouse."  
  
"Well then, that's our entrance," Mira announced.  
  
"Not so fast, Caine's right about this being a risk, the drain's twenty feet below  
land and if the tide rises, that thing's going to fill up with water and we won't be able to  
get out. Not to mention the rats," Tracey cringed at the thought.  
  
"Unfortunately that's our only chance to get in there. I'll go set up a team." Mira  
pulled out her cell phone.  
  
"No!" Both Peter and Tracey said at the same time.  
  
"We have to do this ourselves, no outside help. It may be suicide but it's the only  
way," Peter told her.  
  
"I'll go call the others," Tracey offered.  
  
"And I've got some shopping to do," Peter said, leaving. "Watch him, he has a  
tendency to disappear from where he's supposed to be." Peter told Mira, shooting a  
glance at his father.  
__________________________________  
Chandler Hotel  
  
He awoke with an amazing feeling of bliss but for a second he couldn't   
remember why. Then he felt the little body pressed up against his and the mass of red  
hair sprawled across his chest. Scully, it was her that made him so ecstatically happy,  
she always had, even when she was arguing with him about his theories and his  
apparent lack of sanity. Just being around her, made his meaningless life, something to  
fight for. When he thought she had died, it was as if something had died inside him,  
more like most of him had died. He couldn't imagine why he had never realized his  
feelings before and acted on them. If he had, they might not have wasted so many years  
being lonely and unhappy.   
  
Scully stirred and looked up at him, searching his eyes, trying to figure out what  
he was thinking, if he regretted it, if he wanted her to go away. She only saw the love he  
held for her and utter happiness. She couldn't remember when she had felt so good, it  
felt so good to be lying next to him, their bodies touching. She smiled up at him.  
  
"Hey," Mulder smiled back at her, brushing some hair off her face.  
  
"Hey," Scully mirrored, kissing him gently on the lips, then moving in for a much  
deeper kiss.  
  
"So I'll that as a 'Yes it was good'?" Mulder said.  
  
"Oh yeah," Scully drawled.  
  
"God do you know how beautiful you are?" Mulder said, cupping her face in his  
hands.  
  
Scully blushed, hardly anyone had ever told her that, never someone that  
mattered. She never felt beautiful, she'd always felt...out of place, she lived in a man's  
world and therefore gave up most of her femineity. Scully had always thought Mulder  
just thought of her as a person, never a woman, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing,  
she had just waited so long to hear him tell her she was beautiful.  
  
"I've never told you that before?" Scully shook her head. "Well then, I've got a lot  
of making up to do." He leaned into kiss her, when the vexatious sound of the phone  
interrupted them. "I'm just going to let it ring." He leaned back in to kiss her but she  
backed up.  
  
"Mulder, we both can't avoid the world, right now, maybe later." She kissed him  
quickly a reached over for the phone. "Hello? Yes that's me...uh huh, ye-" Scully almost  
screamed when she felt Mulder kiss the back of her neck, she swatted him away.  
"Yes...okay, when?" Scully pulled Mulder's hand away from where it had been roaming.  
"We'll be right there, bye." Scully quickly hung up the phone. "Mulder! You could have  
gotten me in a lot of trouble."  
  
"That was the whole point." He ducked when she threw a pillow at him.  
  
"We have to go down to Rollie Tyler's loft." Scully told him.  
  
Mulder looked at her with those deep brown eyes, frowning, looking like a little  
puppy dog, telling he didn't want to go.  
  
"Well...I guess we don't have to leave right now..."  
  
"Waaahoo!" Mulder grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into a kiss.  
_______________________________   
51 street   
10:02 PM  
  
Everyone stood next to their cars, which were hidden from sight, preparing for  
something they didn't quite understand. Most knew they facing the ultimate evil, a  
vampire group that wanted to take over the United States and most likely the world. The  
rest only knew that they were not to go into the basement, their job was to keep watch.  
They knew nothing of vampires and it was agreed among the others, that it would stay  
that way.  
  
Angie, Rollie and Mira grudgingly sat in a rented van, as the FX van had been  
blown up. They were in charge of getting the rest through the drain and to the basement  
via radio. They were also the ones who were to get Loubar, the only reason they had  
agreed to stay behind.  
Peter handed Tracey, Vachon, Natalie, Nick, Mulder and Scully, a small bag, in  
them were some essential vampire fighting tools. He shrugged when they looked up  
from the bags, he hadn't had any idea what to get but he thought it was better to be  
safe. They threw them over their shoulders and walked towards the waters edge, where  
a rope ladder would lower them down into the drain.  
  
"Alright, remember you've got till twelve thirty to get out of there, if you don't the  
water's going to rise and fill up the storm drain and you won't be able to get out this  
way." Angie reminded them, through her radio.  
  
Vachon went down the ladder first, the others following, Peter coming down last.  
  
The storm drain was seven feet high and wide and completely dark except for  
light from the moon. A few rats scurried around looking for food through the garbage the  
last tide had brought in. Even with everyone's flashlights on, there were dark corners,  
that gave an eerie feeling.  
  
"Now what?" Mulder asked Angie through the mike attached to his ear.  
  
"Keep going down for a while, in about sixty feet, you'll see a long pipe start with  
a door. Stop when you see it."  
  
Behind Mulder, Nick was fearing the worse. He didn't want Natalie down here but  
she refused to stay up top and Nick didn't know if he could protect her, even though he  
knew she could probably take care of herself. Nick's new cure hadn't faded yet, which  
meant he lacked the strength he might need later and some of those other vampire  
powers might come in handy too. He was a bit scared too, he'd never had to deal with  
the consequences of being mortal. This may be his very last night on earth and he'd  
never had to deal with that.  
  
Natalie was scared too, she knew that sometimes Nick acted without thinking  
about what might happen to him because he could never be killed, at least not easily.  
She was worried that Nick might do something, forgetting he was mortal. There was a  
funny sort of irony, she'd finally gotten her wish of Nick becoming mortal and now she  
wished he was immortal again.  
  
Mulder was leading the group, looking for the pipe and trying not to step on rats,  
an act he was putting most of his concentration on, it kept him from thinking. He'd been  
afraid before and he'd been afraid for Scully before too but now he had so much to lose.  
He didn't want to think what would happen, if they didn't make it out of this or if she  
didn't make it out of this...He wouldn't think about that right now, it wouldn't help him. He  
looked over at Scully, she read his mind, taking his hand and squeezing it for  
reassurance.  
  
Scully herself wasn't going to think about what kind of danger they were about to  
walk into, that was a sure fire way of getting killed. If you started thinking about how  
scared you were and how much you had to lose, you were more likely to mess up and  
get yourself or someone else killed. As hard as she tried to run the plan through her  
head to distract her, there was a nagging fear in the back of her mind. She didn't want to  
die, especially after what she had just found with Mulder.   
  
Tracey was so concerned with the rats, she didn't even notice the fear in  
Vachon's eyes. He'd never fallen in love before, he still wasn't sure if he had but she  
was sure tempting him. She was unlike anyone he'd ever met, she had this zest for life,  
yet she was completely serious at the same time. Tracey had sat with him, when he  
thought he was about to die. She never showed that she was afraid of him, though he  
sometimes suspected that her feelings for him scared her. He'd never actually flown  
somewhere to protect someone and now he was getting the feeling that by taking her  
into the drain, his efforts were being wasted.  
  
Peter stopped and shook his head, "Pop." Caine came around from behind his  
son and tipped his hat at him before walking along with the others. Peter shook his head  
again in annoyance, there was no way of stopping his father, even when they had  
chained him to that hospital bed.  
  
"You should be seeing it now," Angie informed them.  
  
Mulder looked ahead and saw it, a long pipe ran down the drain, then  
disappeared into the wall. At the start was a small round latch door, with a wheel on it.  
Mulder turned the wheel and the door opened. The pipe was only four feet high and  
wide, large enough for a person to crawl through.  
  
"You want us to go through there?" Mulder asked.  
  
"It's the only way in," Angie said.  
  
"Well, I hope no one's claustrophobic." Mulder said, climbing in.  
_______________________________  
10:21 PM  
  
The enormously large room, that looked more like a cave than a room, was more  
than four floors high, with stone walls and balconies. It looked like something from a  
horror movie, the three different balconies went all around the room, encircling a small  
table on the floor. The table was round, with several chairs around it. It was on a raised  
platform, also made of stone and coming out of the table was a small, thin, cylindrical  
staff. The staff was engraved with symbols of a language long dead, and a bowl  
balanced on the top. Against a wall on the bottom floor, there were eight small, stone  
tables.   
  
Men and women, their true nature showing, gathered on the balconies's, taking  
their seats, whispering of what was to come. No one knew the entire plan or how it was  
to be played out, only the elders knew and would reveal it at the stroke of midnight.  
Mulder was the first one out of the pipe, his gun drawn, though he knew it was  
useless. He helped the others out into a dark mechanical room.  
  
"Once you leave this room, your vulnerable," Angie told them, through her  
headset.  
  
"Everybody ready?" Scully asked, reaching for the door handle.  
  
Reaching into their bag's and they withdrew the wooden stakes, Peter had given  
them and turned on a small mechanical box, inside their jackets. The boxes would block  
the sound of their normal heart beat and replace it with a vampire one, a beat every ten  
minutes. Nick had helped Rollie rig it, though Rollie had been very suspicious to why it  
was needed, Nick had been able to lie his way out of it. One a time, Nick going first, they  
went out the door, into a hallway.  
  
They walked with their heads down, in the direction Angie gave them, towards a  
loud sound of people talking. When they reached the end of the hallway, it opened up to  
the cave looking room.   
  
"We need to get down to the floor, it's two floors down," Mulder informed Angie.  
  
It was Rollie who was on the headset now, "There's no records of there being a  
lower floor on these blueprints. Are you sure you didn't go up at some point?"  
  
"Nope. Guess were on our own." Mulder told everyone else.  
  
Tracey looked around, "Where's Vachon?"  
  
The others looked around also but there was no sight of the Spaniard. They all  
hurried back to the mechanical room but he was not there either. That was when Mulder  
spotted the stairs in the room, he pointed them out to the others. They cautiously went  
down them and when they reached the floor below them, another stairwell appeared.  
Before they could reach it, two doors, unseen before, slammed shut and locked on the  
stairwells, making it impossible to go up or down. Scully ran for the door out the room  
but it was locked also. A soft hissing noise came from a small pipe, seeping a cloud of  
greyness into the room.  
  
Everyone started coughing and then fell silently to the ground, unconscious.  
Once they were all out, the hissing stopped, the grey cloud left and the doors opened.  
The man Loubar had been dealing with entered, a younger man following him. The older  
man turned to him.  
  
"Good job. Your loyalty will be well rewarded."  
  
"It is my pleasure to serve you and my kind." The younger man said.  
  
Giving one last look, the older man left him, Vachon followed him out.  
  
________________________________  
  
  
"I'm still not getting anything," Angie told Rollie and Mira.  
  
"I'm calling for backup," Mira reached for her phone but when she turned it on, it  
wouldn't work. She stepped out of the van and tried walking around the corner.  
  
"I'm going in after them," Rollie told Angie, throwing on his jacket.  
  
"Rollie, don't. It's a set-up. I think it's been one since the very beginning,"  
  
"Very good Angela," Loubar walked into the van, pointing a gun at them. "Let's go  
take a walk." He followed them outside.  
  
Rollie looked around for Mira but she was no where to be seen.  
  
"Don't bother looking for the detective, she can't help you now."  
  
Rollie turned quickly to face Loubar and slammed his fist into Loubar's face,  
sending the gun falling to the ground. Loubar sent a punch into Rollie's stomach,  
causing Rollie to fall back. Angie rushed around and reached for the gun but before she  
got it, Loubar picked it up and grabbed her around waist. Her back was to him and the  
gun was pointed to her head, Rollie stopped in his tracks.  
  
"I don't want to kill her now but I will, Tyler." Loubar warned.  
  
They walked into the warehouse, to a small room that was set up with several tv's  
that were hooked up to video cameras, that surrounded the warehouse and inside it.  
Loubar motioned for Rollie and Angie to sit down, they held each others hand. Loubar  
first tied Angie to a chair, then Rollie and moved Angie's chair, so she was in full view of  
Rollie. Loubar pulled a syringe out of a bag and put it in Rollie's arm, causing Rollie to  
fall unconscious.  
  
________________________  
11:46 PM   
  
Mulder woke up and tried to sit up, but he was unable to. He slowly opened his  
eyes and looked up, seeing the cave like room, he'd seen at the end of the hallway. If  
was now filled with people, who were looking down on him. His arms were chained  
above his head and his feet were chained to the cold, stone table he was lying on.  
Beside him, Scully lay in the same position, as did the others, with one exception,  
Vachon, who was standing on the raised platform in the center of the room.  
  
Nick, too, had awakened to the site, spotted Vachon and knew immediately what  
was going on. "Vachon, how could you do this? How could you do this to Tracey?" He  
yelled, Vachon shifted his gaze elsewhere.  
  
The others awakened as well, Mira had also joined them, fear and hatred growing  
in their eyes, except for Tracey, who's only held hatred. She glared at Vachon, furious  
for trusting him, for loving him. Betrayal was the worst pain one could cause.  
  
The room quickly fell silent as group of men walked into the room and stepped up  
onto the platform. They sat down, Vachon joining them as well but one man remained  
standing. He was the man that had been dealing with Loubar, the head of The Kindred,  
the oldest vampire living.   
  
"We have awaited this moment for over a thousand years and although some  
have been with us since the beginning, others join us for the first time tonight. The night  
of the Kindred. From now on vampires will rule the world and mortals will only be used  
as our cattle." he announced.  
  
"I thought it was only supposed to be the country?" Natalie whispered to Nick,  
who only shook his head in confusion.  
  
"What...the...hell?" Mira whispered to herself.  
  
"We will live in silence, no longer," the man yelled.  
  
The man rose up from the ground and flew over to Nick and the others, stopping  
in front of Nick. He turned to face the crowds, "With the blood of these mortals, mixed in  
that bowl," he pointed to the bowl on top of the staff, in the middle of the table, "at the  
stroke of midnight, the mortal ruling of the world, will end and ours will begin." He took a  
sword from the table and walked back over to Nick. "Now you will get to experience your  
full mortality."  
  
He slit Nick's left arm open, letting the blood drip into a glass, as the elders did  
the same to the others. The glasses of blood were all brought over to the table, waiting  
to be poured into the sacred bowl at midnight.  
  
Mulder looked over to Scully, who had tears in her eyes, "I love you," he  
whispered and she said it also.  
  
Natalie and Nick shared the same look, as they too whispered those sacred three  
words.  
_________________________  
  
  
Rollie had woken up a minute ago but his consciousness yet to fully awaken. He  
felt the gun in his hand, though Rollie had no idea why he had it. It was pointed at Angie,  
who was yelling his name, telling him not to do it. Do what? He didn't understand.  
  
Angie stared back at him, knowing Rollie had been drugged, something that  
would make him Loubar's slave. It wasn't Rollie who was holding the gun, but it would be  
Rollie who physically pulled the trigger. She tried to reach him with her words but  
nothing was getting through, he remained unmoved. There was nothing she could do,  
tears ran down her cheeks, not for the loss of her life but for the pain that Rollie would  
go through, after killing her.  
  
Loubar was telling him something, what was it? Pull the trigger? But if he did that  
he would kill Angie. Why if he didn't want to do it was the gun being trained on Angie's  
head. What was going on, why was his body doing things, he couldn't even imagine?  
There was no fighting it, he had no control over what he was doing and pulled the  
trigger.  
_________________________________  
  
The elders stood above the mortals, their swords preparing to stab them in the  
heart. Vachon was the one who stood over Tracey, his swords trained on her heart. Her  
eyes tore at him, not fully understanding what was about to happen and not caring, for  
her hate overshadowed her fear.  
  
The cups were positioned above the bowl, awaiting midnight. The elder vampires  
stood, awaiting it also.  
  
The countdown had begun; ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three...  
  
Vachon took his sword and threw it towards the bowl, knocking it off the staff,  
causing it to fall to the ground and break. He flew into one of the elders, taking his  
sword, then stabbing him with a stake, he hid in his jacket. Then he brought the sword  
down, cutting the chains attached to Tracey free, then moving onto the others, stabbing  
elders with stakes. "NICK!" He yelled.  
  
Nick broke free of the chains with his bare hands, his vampire powers back, he  
broke the chains free on Natalie and Mulder. The leader stopped him from getting Scully  
free, he charged into him, knocking Nick over. The other vampires were starting to fly  
down to the ground floor, Vachon pointed to under the table where several wooden  
stakes were hidden.  
  
Vachon grabbed Tracey and Natalie around their waists and quickly flew up to  
the ceiling where there was a small exit. He brought them down to the ground.  
  
"Go find Rollie and Angie, I think they might be in trouble." Before he left, he  
grabbed Tracey behind the neck and drew her into a deep kiss. "How could you think I'd  
betray you?"   
  
Vachon flew back into the warehouse, where there were surprisingly a lot less  
vampires than before. In fact only about ten remained, Vachon looked around for a  
reason so many vampires would leave so quickly. Then he saw it, the leader of The  
Kindred was dead, a stake through his heart. LaCoix stood above him.  
  
Mulder had managed to free Scully of her chains and she was stabbing some  
vampire, with a viciousness, Mulder had never seen before. It was kinda sexy.  
  
The remaining few vampires, were now lying on the ground, dead. Vachon and  
Nick, flew everyone else up to outside, sending them to their cars, to go to the hospital.  
Nick, Mulder and Scully went back into the warehouse to find Angie and Rollie.   
  
Rollie was on the ground, asleep, holding a gun, Angie was slumped over in her  
chair and Loubar was lying, dead, on the ground a bullet hole in his head.  
  
"Rollie's been drugged, I think he okay now though," Angie told the three that had  
just walked in.  
  
Scully checked first on Rollie, who woke up complaining of a head ache, then she  
checked on Loubar who was quite dead.  
  
They escorted them out of the building, using a phone in the van to phone the  
police. Nick was going to stay and explain but sent the others to the hospital to get their  
arms checked and get some stitches.  
____________________________________  
Rollie Tyler's Loft  
February 14, 7:34 PM  
  
"So you knew that Vachon was good, the entire time?" Natalie asked Nick, who  
only shrugged. "I can not believe you never told me."  
  
"Yeah, excuse me Vachon, you know you could have trusted me!" Tracey  
slugged him in the arm.  
  
"Yeah and how long were you going to wait, before breaking that bowl? That was  
cutting it a little close, I know you wanted it to be all melo-dramatic and everything but  
that was a little close." Nick told Vachon, slightly annoyed.  
  
"Hey, I saved everyone's asses, can I get a little gratitude?" Several pillows hit  
Vachon's head.  
  
"What I want to know, Nick, is how long where you going to wait, before you  
decided to help yourself out of those chains?" Mulder asked.  
  
"I swear, that drug did not wear off till then. I swear!" Nick said innocently.  
  
"Well what I can't believe is that there are real bloody vampires. No pun  
intended." Rollie said.  
  
Natalie looked over at Nick, who nodded.  
  
"Rollie, Angie and Mira can I talk to you alone for a minute?" Nick motioned for  
them.  
  
Scully sat next to Mulder, holding his hand. "What is he doing?"  
  
"He's making them forget that there were ever such a thing as vampire's," Natalie  
told her.  
  
"I still cannot believe Nick has been a vampire this entire time!" Tracey said,  
shaking her head. Then she turned to Vachon, "You knew that didn't you?" She  
punched him again.  
  
"I...um, I, I'm going to move if you keep that up." He told her, smiling.  
  
When the others came back and sat down, Peter stood up. "Well Mira, I guess  
we now have time to catch up, ca'mon." He reached out his hand to her, but received a  
hard slap on the cheek. "I guess that was for that one time, in Vegas?"  
  
"That one time, Peter..." Mira and Peter left. Kwai Chang Caine soon following.  
  
"It has been a pleasure to have met you all but I also have some catching up to  
do with an old friend."  
  
"Don't tell me," Natalie said to Nick after Caine had left, "LaCoix?"  
  
"LaCoix's complicated."  
  
"I never would have expected him to be friends with a priest. Well, do you want to  
go?"   
  
"Absolutely. We have a date with one of those people who made Prokisnetic.  
Happy Valentines Day!" They left, hoping to find a cure to Nick's vampirism, knowing  
even if they didn't find it, they would still have each other. And sex wasn't everything,  
right?  
  
"We better get going too then, Vachon has a lot of repenting to do." Tracey told  
them, Vachon smiling weakly.  
  
"Well, that's our cue to leave too." Mulder stood up, pulling Scully along with him.  
They still had a lot to work out but for this one night they were just planning on being  
with one another.  
  
Once they were along, Angie turned to Rollie, "What made you shoot Loubar and  
not me?"  
  
"It's going to sound really stupid but it was almost as if I heard your voice in my  
head and somehow that stopped me from shooting you. I'm not really sure though,  
maybe we'll never know."  
  
"Well, at least Loubar's dead."  
  
Outside, in a dark car a man sat, listening in on their conversation, hearing  
enough, he put the key in the ignition and pulled away. Making plans on how Victor  
Loubar would make his comeback.  
  
  
The End  
  
Notes: I know some of it didn't make sense and I kinda left a lot of things out in the open  
but maybe if I get a lot of good feedback, I'll write a sequel (hint, hint). Thank you for  
reading, I hope you enjoyed it! 


End file.
